Portal 3 (Chapters 1-8 Revised)(in revision process)
by InGodzHandz
Summary: Set 20 years after "Portal 2" ended, mankind has mostly been enslaved by the Combines once again with the few free people hiding in the country. Mutants have evolved and use their powers to survive. Chelsea and Brandon, two mutants, accidentally stumble upon Aperture Science. GLaDOS kidnaps them and their other friends and intends to use them for experiments. Christian characters!
1. Chapter 1

It had been twenty years since the events of "Portal 2." The scene began with Chelsea riding on her flying disk with her best friend Brandon holding onto her. All of a sudden, Chelsea stopped mid-flight.

"What gives? Why did you stop?" Brandon asked.

"Have you ever thought that the world is hurt because it is God's way of judging us?" Chelsea said.

"What are you going on about now?" Brandon asked as he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"I'm serious, Brandon," Chelsea said as she leaned back against him. "Just think about it. I've read books. Before the Combines came the first time, the world was horrible. America was a place that put pollution in the air so people could drive cool cars, blocked out the stars so that people could have lights on all night, and allowed people to starve so that they could have more for cheaper prices. The rest of the world was not much better either. Even after the Combines were defeated, the world did not improve by that much. The world was still corrupt and people still starved."

"We will starve if we don't get going," Brandon said pushing her back onto her feet and trying to get her to move along.

"Brandon!" Chelsea said in frustration as she turned around.

"Where are you going with this?" Brandon asked in annoyance at her going on a philosophical tangent.

"All I am saying is that maybe we should just accept our punishment and stop trying to live," Chelsea said despondently. "People certainly have done things deserving death. I don't know why God lets us live sometimes."

"Chelsea, that's horrible!" Brandon said in shock at her attitude. "You know God cares about people, too."

"I know that," Chelsea said. "I just can't help but feel angry about what people have done. Why doesn't he just let us all die? Why doesn't he just come to judge the world now?"

"I know how you feel but remember what Pastor Roberts said," Brandon said. "God is a God of mercy and gave us all a second chance when we didn't deserve it. Even if we abuse our free wills, he is still willing to forgive us. You know that. We have to do the same for others, too. We have to be willing to forgive people when they mess up."

"People are abusive," Chelsea said crossing her arms. "They just keep messing up and they're not always trustworthy, so why keep going? It feels hopeless."

"We can't change what people have done or will do," Brandon said as gently as he could. "All we can do is try to make the world a better place that honors God, people, and nature however we can. God will do the rest. He will do what is right in the end anyway. Jesus will return and punish all evildoers on judgement day. We just have to keep doing what is right and not give up because it is what he wants us to do."

Chelsea thought for a moment about what he said for a moment and realized that he was right. She could not give up on trying to do the right thing just because people were abusive. She had to keep going. They all did.

"I guess you're right, Brandon," Chelsea said sighing in agreement. "Thanks!"

"Can we go now?" Brandon asked sarcastically. "Or do you feel like discussing predestination?"

"You already how I feel about that. I don't need to talk about it anymore. Excuse me for wanting to think and figure out the truth with the help of my brother in Christ! Sheesh!"

"Well, we have to get back before nightfall or else the entire congregation will chew us out."

With that, she started flying again.

"Hey, Brandon!" Chelsea said.

"What?" Brandon replied.

"After the Combines are gone, you think that I could establish myself as queen?" Chelsea asked sarcastically.

"What?" Brandon said not able to suppress his laughter.

"I could be the queen of the new world and make it illegal for anyone to turn on lights at night and prevent me from seeing the stars!" Chelsea said emphatically.

"And if they refuse?" Brandon asked

"Off with their heads!" Chelsea said cheerfully. "It will be a complete dictatorship, and everyone will do as I say or die."

"Holy crap, woman!" Brandon said.

"It was a joke, dude," Chelsea said. "I wasn't being serious."

"You are so bipolar!" Brandon said. "Half the time, I'm not sure there isn't something else wrong with you."

"I could push you off my hover disc at any time and claim it was an accident," Chelsea said teasingly.

"You forget that I can land on my feet and not get hurt," Brandon said.

"Not if your head accidentally gets cut off in the process," Chelsea said creating a blue disc on her left arm and turning to show it to Brandon. "I need practice for when I'm the queen."

"That got morbid really fast," Brandon said.

"Well, then don't insult me," Chelsea said sarcastically while turning back around.

"Calm down, Chelsea," Brandon said in a tone that was slightly more serious for fear that her hyperactivity was getting slightly out of hand. "Quit playing around with your disc before you hurt me. We need to focus and find supplies."

"Okay, whatever," Chelsea said with a smile while dissolving her disc on her arm. "I told you I was kidding. I'm not going to hurt you."

Brandon looked at her with fake scorn.

"Bipolar hippie!" he said.

"Shut up, Grease Lightning!" Chelsea replied.

They smiled and laughed it off.

Chelsea was a half white and half Asian young woman of 18 years. She was wearing a red beaded necklace, sunglasses, a black t-shirt with a silver butterfly on it over a grey tank top, a green jacket, blue jeans, fingerless leather gloves, and white boots that she was borrowing from her mother. Her most notable feature was her bright blue eyes which contrasted strongly with her below shoulder length black hair that was almost always pulled back. Brandon was a 22 year old half-white, half-Mexican man with brown hair and brown eyes wearing a white tee shirt, sunglasses, jeans, black boots, and a black leather jacket which was the reason that Chelsea called him Grease Lightning. He had a long face with brown eyes and the start of a goatee on his chin. They were both carrying backpacks and gym bags in order to haul back supplies to their home.

They were also both mutants. Chelsea had the ability to create blue force fields with her hands. She could also use the energy disks as weapons or make one at her feet to fly on. Brandon had the ability to completely control his density. One second, he could make himself dissolute enough to walk through walks and the next second he could make himself harder than a diamond.

Chelsea was by nature deeply philosophical and a deep thinker who was not afraid of being passionate or smart or letting others know how she felt. She loved nature, she loved art, she loved reading books, she loved photography, and she loved to do anything that allowed her to pursue her own curiosity or creativity. Chelsea was smart and enjoyed thinking. However on the same token, she also loved people. Perhaps if circumstances were different, she would have been more of an introvert, but because of her constant acceptance from friends, family, and spiritual family, she had grown a deep love for them. Chelsea enjoyed being with other people and having fun with them as much as she enjoyed being by herself. Furthermore, she was a great listener and an excellent peacemaker. Chelsea was accepting and kind so she was the one who everyone could talk to and who everyone turned to help with disputes. She hated fighting between people. To sum it up, she was book smart and people smart. She could also be both smart and really deep one minute while being funny and goofy with people in the next. It was for that reason that Brandon called her bipolar. She had the ability to be both extremes at once. Chelsea also had a bad case of ADHD and as a result a high distractibility and hyperactivity which meant she had a poorer sense of self-control.

Her friend Brandon was more even-tempered than Chelsea was. Whenever Chelsea got too upset about anything, he was the one to bring her back to reality. He was a good listener, he had a good deal of common sense, and he had a good deal of patience. It also helped that he was by nature a happy and good-humored man to begin with. It was remarkable since Brandon had had a sad back story. His mother had left the family when he was only two years old. However from his father, he had learned to have a positive outlook on life and very good sense of humor. Unfortunately though, he also had a tendency to be judgmental of others and was impatient with people who did wrong because of the pain that the divorce gave his father. Furthermore, Brandon was also really funny and often made Chelsea laugh. He looked after her like her older brother. He was also in love with the style of the 1950's which was why he always wore his leather jacket.

They were going on a routine mission to find supplies to bring back to the abandoned hotel complex in the country that their church's congregation called home. Due to the invasion of the Combines and the enslavement of humanity, they hid themselves as far away from cities as possible in an area in the northern Michigan peninsula. Their church was called the First Church of Christ. It was small, only about 50 people in total but it was a close knit group full of kind and somewhat odd people. They had been based in the inner city suburbs in Detroit but after the invasion of the Combines Pastor Roberts feared that the leaders of humanity were too cowardly and advised his congregation to follow him to the country. They did and had him and God to thank for their freedom. Over the years after running into other survivors and having children, their numbers had swelled to 70. Roberts was not only a special leader for his foresight, his kindness, his spiritual wisdom, and his insight, but he like Chelsea and Brandon was a mutant as well. He had the ability to generate electricity from his body, an extremely useful power for the survivors.

There were ten mutants in the group. For instance, Chelsea's father was telepathic, while Brandon's father was a healer. There were other mutants that could do other things too around the world. No one was quite sure how this had come about. The main theory was that because of all the radiation in the air from previous alien wars the genes of humans had been mutated in a way that was very beneficial for them. It was an act of God. That's how they described it at least.

After flying for about half an hour longer, Brandon and Chelsea spotted some huge abandoned buildings that looked like a large facility of some sort.

"What do you think this place is?" Brandon asked.

"I don't know," Chelsea said. "Maybe this is where the government used to experiment on aliens."

"That's Area 51 and that's in New Mexico," Brandon said. "Anyway, let's see if we can find anything valuable in there."

"I don't think we should," Chelsea said in a sudden burst of fear.

"Why not?" Brandon asked.

"I know this may sound weird but I am getting some really bad vibes from this place," Chelsea said. "I don't know what it is but there is something up about this place."

"That is weird," Brandon said. "You usually never get paranoid about going anywhere."

"I know," Chelsea said. "It's usually you getting paranoid."

"Listen, let's just go in there and see what we can find so we can get going quickly," said Brandon.

"Alright," Chelsea replied hesitantly.

With that, Chelsea flew them down to the ground just past the front gates. They continued to hover several inches above the ground as they reached the front building that was apparently an office area of some sort. Brandon wrapped his arms around Chelsea, and they phased through the locked doors.

Unbeknownst to them, they were being seen by a yellow robotic eye.

"Incredible," the female, mechanical voice said. "I must observe them further."

Meanwhile, Chelsea and Brandon entered the rooms, took of their sunglasses, put down their bags, and Chelsea created dozens of little orbs of light with her fingers to light up the place. It appeared to be a waiting room of some sort.

"This place is old," Brandon said. "There's not even a TV set up here."

Chelsea looked at something and her eyes lit up.

"Holy crap!" she exclaimed.

"What is it now?" asked Brandon.

"National Geographic Magazines," she said excitedly holding up the magazines from the table. "I love these things! Look, they have pictures from Australia! I'm going there one day. You know they say that the stars down there look different from the stars up here because of the difference in hemispheres. I'm going to see them for myself."

"What about your plans to rule the earth…and the Combines?" Brandon asked bringing her back to reality.

"Details, details, it's not wrong to have dreams," Chelsea replied in annoyance as he continued to search around. "Also, you know I was just kidding about wanting to rule the world right? It would be way too much work, and besides, politics suck."

Chelsea looked down at the magazines and said "Whoa! These ones are really old. They're from the 1990's."

"Why use them then?" Brandon asked.

"They're like history books," Chelsea said looking at him. "You can find out about what life was like back then. It's good educational material for the little ones. Oh, and look, here are some science journals, too. Sylvie will like these."

"You are talking about Sylvie, right?" Brandon asked as she looked away. "I thought she was into engineering."

"She's into scientific things in general," Chelsea informed him as she continued looking through the magazines. "I promised her that I would bring her whatever books I could find about it. There are some fashion magazines in here, too. Holy shit! Did people actually use to dress like that?"

"You can look at the magazines later," Brandon said. "We need to find other supplies, Chelsea."

"Fine! Sheesh!" Chelsea said sarcastically stuffing all the magazines into her backpack. "Let's see what treasure trove of supplies we can find."

"Let's see what's in those desks," Brandon said.

They began to search the front desk of the lobby for supplies.

"What a surprise! Pens and pencils," Chelsea said very sarcastically as she put the supplies in her bag. "At least, we will never run out of writing supplies."

"Ready to move on?" Brandon asked.

"Sure," Chelsea said.

They mounted Chelsea's hover disc and Brandon phased through the wall as the orbs dissolved behind her.

"Thank God! There are more offices!" she exclaimed sarcastically as she created more light orbs to light up the room. "Surely, we have found a gold mine of writing supplies! I can continue scrapbooking forever! My fears have been alleviated!"

Brandon just chuckled to himself at her silliness.

They landed and began to rummage once more finding nothing but pens and pencils and office supplies in general.

The yellow mechanical eye continued to stare through the security cameras.

"Her shoes, they are just like hers," she said. "I wonder…"

"Hey," Brandon began as they prepared to go search another desk. "I've been meaning to ask. How's your Mom? Is she okay? I heard she had a nightmare."

"Yes," Chelsea began sadly stopping what she was doing. "She woke up screaming around midnight last night. I was outside photographing the stars. It scared the crap out of me. I ran in and Dad, Sylvie, and Pastor Roberts were all there calming her down. She fell asleep after a few hours, but Dad thought it would be better if she took the day off. Sylvie and her are back home hanging out now."

"I am so sorry," Brandon said putting her hand on her shoulder understanding her concern.

"Don't be," Chelsea said waving his hand away. "She's actually doing a lot better than she used to. She used to never talk at all. Then she woke up screaming one night and let no one approach her, but my Dad came forward, read her mind, and the rest is history. She has gone from not talking at all, to only talking to my Dad, to talking openly about it all the time, to being happy with life, and finally to rarely having nightmares at all. She found God, married my Dad, had me, and became friends with everyone in the congregation."

"That's wonderful," Brandon said. "God has really been good to her."

"He has," Chelsea said. "I'm amazed at how far she's come. My Mom is a strong lady. How else could she have survived under that bitch for all those years?"

Her demeanor grew dark as she continued, "You know it's people like her that make me wonder why God has so much mercy on humanity. How could anyone be so cruel to a person? Use them like a toy for entertainment? All in the name of science? I hate her. I used to pray that God would give me an opportunity to kill her myself so that she would receive judgement for all the horrible things she has done to my mother and everyone else."

"I know how you feel," Brandon said as he put both hands on her shoulders. "I feel the same way about my mother. However, you have to believe that God will bring her to justice. You can trust that, but you can't live out your life hating her. It will just poison you. You have to forgive her like God wants to…eventually."

"Eventually," she agreed. "Anyways, let's get on with this. I want to get back to see how my Mom is doing."

"I'll tell you what," Brandon said pulling his hands off of her. "How about we have a quick, cursory look of the place to see if there's anything glaringly obvious that we should pick up and then go home? We can come back when your Mom feels better. It's no big deal. We can always just bring back some fish from the lake anyway."

Chelsea hugged Brandon and smiled.

"Thanks, Brandon!" Chelsea said.

With that, they took off once again. They mostly flew through offices as first. Eventually though, Brandon and Chelsea flew through rooms that looked a bit different. They were covered with white tiles, red buttons, lasers, et cetera. There were other areas that had nothing at all but was just open space. The layout was bizarre.

"This place is weird. What is it? Some kind of weapons testing facility?" Brandon asked.

Chelsea remained silent. A cold, icy feeling had come over her. She did not know why, but she felt as if she had seen these images before in a nightmare of some sort. The facility was much larger than either of them had anticipated. She couldn't understand her feelings until she glanced the words, "The cake is a lie" scrawled on the wall just as Brandon phased them through another wall through another large space and into a large grey room.

Then she stopped her hover disc, turned Brandon around, and grabbed his shoulders.

"We have to get out of here now," said Chelsea still partly in shock.

"Why?" asked Brandon.

"I know why I've felt sick ever since we arrived," Chelsea said growing more and more hysterical. "This is the place that Mom used to always talk about. I remember now. I remember the white testing chambers and the sulfuric water. It is all like she said. Don't you see? THIS IS THE PLACE THAT TORTURED HER FOR YEARS. This is the place where that monster lives. This place is…"

"Aperture Science," said a cold, feminine mechanical voice.

They turned around suddenly to see the large white and black robotic entity that Chelsea's mother always described.

"GLaDOS," said Chelsea, her face turning white with fear.

"That's right," said GLaDOS. "I've been waiting to meet you formally."

"How…?" Chelsea managed to get out.

"I've been watching you ever since you arrived," GLaDOS said.

GLaDOS moved in closer and studied Chelsea with her eye. Chelsea could feel her heart in her throat. She could not believe what was happening but knew that they had to run.

"Simply extraordinary," GLaDOS began. "To think that that lunatic actually has had a child."

"What are you talking about?" Chelsea demanded.

"Your mother, Chell," GLaDOS replied. "You know I had always been faintly curious to know what her child would look like should she ever actually find a mate to reproduce with. You're not that far off from what I imagined except for the freakish superpowers of course. You look a lot like her except for the black hair, slanted eyes, and lighter skin. You have the same blue eyes that she did."

GLaDOS then sighed and said, "I'm glad that she hasn't forgotten about me after all these years."

"So, you've been eavesdropping, too," Chelsea retorted as she began to feel herself getting angry.

"Yes, but that does not matter now," GLaDOS said. "What I want to know is how you got those extraordinary powers. I have never seen any other humans who can do what you two can."

"Wouldn't you like to know," Chelsea replied spitefully. "We are leaving!"

With that, Chelsea and Brandon began flying towards the ceiling, but GLaDOS flung her claw in front of them.

"How impetuous!" GLaDOS said. "You really are her child. You have her horrible manners. You two have given me new scientific opportunities. I do not want you to leave. Think of all the science."

"Excuse me," Chelsea said feeling the anger rise up. "But I don't recall ever saying that I gave the smallest amount of shit for anything you wanted!"

With that, Chelsea created another disc with her left hand and cut GLaDOS's claw off. As GLaDOS watched it hit the floor in shock, the two flew faster towards the ceiling.

"Chelsea, you moron," Brandon yelled. "You didn't have to do that! You just pissed her off!"

"I don't care! She deserved it!" Chelsea yelled back.

They were almost at the ceiling and that was when GLaDOS made her next move.

"Look out!" Brandon yelled.

Chelsea turned quickly to see GLaDOS wrapping the electrical wire that the claw was formerly attached to around her foot. She had just enough time to push Brandon off the disk and begin to create a small shield when GLaDOS stuck the electrical wire against her skin. Chelsea heard herself scream as she felt God knows how many volts of electricity go through her body. The whole event lasted around ten seconds but to Chelsea it felt much longer. GLaDOS finally unwrapped the wire from her leg, Chelsea's hover disc vanished, and she and all the bags fell to the ground. She landed on her feet and then fell on her right side. She was still awake but was too hurt to really move. She was almost paralyzed. She could feel GLaDOS stare at her.

"Your boyfriend was right you know," GLaDOS said. "It really is a bad idea to make me angry. You're lucky that I don't want you dead, you little monster."

Brandon hardened himself enough so that he had landed without getting hurt.

GLaDOS was impressed and said, "Amazing! You can make yourself harder, too."

Brandon looked on to see his best friend limp and almost lifeless.

"You monster!" he screamed. "Chelsea!"

Chelsea created a force field around her body. Then she called out to Brandon.

"Get under here!" Chelsea yelled.

Brandon started running towards her, but GLaDOS was not about to let them get back together. Turrets seemed to pop out of nowhere to get in his way. Brandon tried to phase through them and dodge them as best he could.

In desperation, Chelsea began telepathically calling to her Dad. Fortunately, her Dad responded.

_"Chelsea?" _he said._ "I'm here with your mother. You sound awful. What's wrong? What's happening?"_

_"Dad," _Chelsea began._ "I'm so sorry. Brandon and I didn't mean to, but we found her. We found Aperture Science and we're now fighting GLaDOS."_

_"Oh, my God! Are you serious?" _Zaki replied in fear.

_"Yes, we didn't know what it was when we were going in but I had a bad feeling," _Chelsea said quickly in her mind. _"I should have made us turn back. I made her mad. Now, I'm hurt and Brandon's fighting her. We need help. She wants to experiment on us."_

_"Chelsea, calm down. It's not your fault,"_ she heard her Mom say calmly. _"We are coming for you."_

_"No, Mom!"_ Chelsea replied in guilt. _"Don't face her! I don't want her to hurt you again."_

_"Don't worry about me,"_ Chell said firmly_. "Just worry about yourself. Don't give into her and let her make you afraid. Be strong and pray. Don't let her crush you."_

_"I'll be strong like you, Mom,"_ Chelsea promised.

_"I love you,"_ Chell said tenderly.

_"I love you, too,"_ Chelsea said as tears welled up in her eyes.

_"We will gather the other mutants and head your way. Stay in contact, Chelsea, and for God's sake, don't let GLaDOS know that you're talking to us,"_ said her Dad.

_"I won't, Dad,"_ Chelsea said_. "Come soon."_

Then, their communication ceased.

Brandon finally phased through the robots and started running for Chelsea. Unfortunately, GLaDOS was right behind him with her other claw.

"Brandon, behind you!" Chelsea screamed.

Brandon turned around too late. GLaDOS tapped him on the head with her claw, and he collapsed unconscious.

"No!" yelled Chelsea as she grew wide-eyed with fear.

GLaDOS called out, "Blue, Orange, come take him to the medical lab while I deal with her. The doctor robots I assembled should be there by now. Come back with the gurney so that you can carry her more easily."

A tall orange-eyed robot and a shorter blue-eyed robot walked into the room. Each of them took one side of Brandon and carried him out of the room while Chelsea watched helplessly.

"No! Leave him alone! Stop!" Chelsea screamed helplessly.

"Calm down," said GLaDOS. "He'll be fine. You will just wear yourself out faster if you keep screaming like that."

GLaDOS moved closer to her shield and appeared to be examining it.

"Get your ugly mug away from me," Chelsea said angrily.

"You're much more vocal than your mother ever was," GLaDOS said in observation.

"You're going to pay for this," Chelsea said while trying to keep up a brave face. "The judgment of God comes to all evildoers and you are no exception."

"I've heard better speeches from the turrets," GLaDOS said sarcastically as she pulled back and turned on the water sprinklers attached to the ceiling.

The whole floor quickly became wet. Chelsea's force field blocked the water from the ceiling, but there was water streaming under her as a result of the cracks and lines in the floor.

_"What is she doing?"_ Chelsea thought to herself. _"Is she just trying to annoy me by making me wet?"_

"It doesn't matter if you believe me or not," Chelsea said staring directly into GLaDOS's eye. "You will be stopped. You will not defeat me. You won't hurt us like you did my mother. I will escape! I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Atlas and P-Body come back through the side door with the gurney. Chelsea turned her head to see them.

"Don't come in! Wait a moment and I will bring her to you," GLaDOS said to them.

"What are you talking about?" Chelsea said as she turned her head to face GLaDOS once more.

Chelsea looked up to see GLaDOS wielding her broken, clawless wire that had sparks flying out of it just one foot above the watery floor. She moved the wire closer and closer to Chelsea's force field until she stopped it just in front of her face. Chelsea was too hurt to move or make a disc to lift herself off the ground so all she could do was freeze in fear.

"So you want to kill me, too?" GLaDOS said in a cold, mocking voice. "How original."

Chelsea's eyes followed the wire as she slowly lowered it to the floor. She tried to keep a strong face like her mother would even though her body was shaking uncontrollably. She closed her eyes and braced for the pain.

"Good luck," GLaDOS said as she touched the wire to the floor.

Chelsea was electrocuted immediately and passed out from the shock. GLaDOS pulled the wire up as soon as she saw her force field disappear. GLaDOS moved in closer to make sure she was still alive.

"Good," she said in satisfaction. "You're still breathing. You're a strong one like your mother. I am so going to enjoy our time together."

She picked up Chelsea's limp body with one of her other claws and handed her to the robots.

"Take her to the medical lab," GLaDOS said. "Before they do anything else, make sure they collect a blood sample from her and her friend for analysis. After that, they can treat her wounds and make sure they are both stabilized. I'll be there soon. I just need to open up new files and input some data for our new test subjects."

After placing her on the gurney, Atlas and P-Body pushed it until they finally reached the extremely large medical lab. When they arrived, the five red and white, one-eyed doctor robots had already collected a blood sample from Brandon who was also there lying on a gurney without his jacket and a blood-stained bandage on his right arm. Atlas and P-Body got out of the way standing near the revolving doors as the doctors prepared to do the same thing to Chelsea.

The doctor robots pulled off Chelsea's jacket and gloves. One of them then held up her right arm as another one collected a sample of blood. That being done, her wound was bandaged as they labeled the tube of her blood and put it with Brandon's in a machine in order to be analyzed.

After the robots bandaged her and turned their attention to their preparations for the moment, Chelsea's eye lids opened. She looked around and noticed that her jacket and gloves were gone and that her right arm had a bandage with a blood stain on it. She felt too weak to move at all and just looked around for a moment to take in her surroundings. Her senses were dulled because of her injuries so besides the fact that she was in a medical lab she could not figure out what else was going on. She then looked to her left and noticed that her gurney was right next to Brandon's.

"Brandon," she whispered deliriously and weakly as she tried moving her left hand to touch him. "Brandon, wake up. We have to go. Brandon…"

Unfortunately, it was when her left hand was on the rail of her gurney that one of the robots moved Brandon's gurney away out of her sight.

"No," Chelsea whispered in despair as she reached her hand over the gurney rail for him. "Bring him back please. Don't take him away."

"She's awake, you morons," GLaDOS said over the intercom. "I didn't think I had to tell you to make sure she stayed unconscious, too. For God's sake, you _are_ doctors. Aren't you?"

It was then that the other doctor robots saw that Chelsea was awake and there was an uproar as they scrambled to find a tranquilizer for her like they had for Brandon.

"No," Chelsea whispered as she tried to reach for him again with her left hand as her body ached intensely from the effort. "Don't take him away. He's my best friend. Don't take him away please."

It was then that P-Body stepped in her line of sight and grabbed onto her left hand. He held it in his right hand gently as he began to tenderly stroke it with his other hand in a comforting gesture. It took Chelsea aback completely. The look in his eye was warm and comforting like he was trying to reassure her that everything was going to be alright though his hands and the room were completely cold.

"What are you doing?" Chelsea said in an even weaker whisper as she stared on in dazed confusion. "Why are you being so gentle? Where did Brandon go? Is he coming back?"

A doctor robot finally found the tranquilizer and filled a syringe with it as P-Body continued to stand there and stroke her hand honestly wanting to comfort her while knowing what they were going to do to her was probably not good.

"Are you going to say anything at all?" Chelsea asked weakly. "He's my brother in Christ. You have to get him back for me. We have to leave and go home together. We have to return to our family."

"This will be your home now, my test subject," GLaDOS said in a falsely comforting tone as the doctor robot walked over with the tranquilizer. "You are not ever leaving, but don't worry. We will be your family now. I will be your mother since you are most likely never seeing your biological mother again, and right now, mother is putting you down for a nice, long nap while she gets some work done. As for your brother, maybe if you two behave, you will get to play together again."

"No," Chelsea whispered in reaction as a few tears fell from her eyes. "Don't do this, God…"

Atlas helped the doctor robot this time as he held her right arm down so that he could stick the syringe into the correct vein.

"Please," Chelsea whispered to P-Body while they injected the serum into her body. "I can't stay. Must go home. Must go…"

Chelsea fell asleep as P-Body continued to hold her hand and look at her in pity and for once in his life confusion at the orders he was following.

"Good work, Orange," GLaDOS said. "You did a great job distracting her. Now come along. I have more work for you and Blue to do."

Atlas tugged on P-Body's left arm, and he slowly put Chelsea's hand back on her chest. As the doctor robots wheeled her away deeper into the lab, P-Body looked after her in concern for a second before finally turning to follow Atlas. Before they could exit the room completely however, GLaDOS gave them another order.

"Actually, I want you to wait there for a few minutes," GLaDOS said. "There is something I need you to do for me first."

P-Body and Atlas entered the room again and waited. After about a minute, two doctor robots walked back with two large, white duffel bags. They handed the bags to each of the robots and walked back into the lab. Atlas and P-Body opened the bags to find that Atlas was carrying the bag with Brandon's clothes while P-Body was carrying the bag with Chelsea's. P-Body reached into the bag and picked out her red necklace.

"I need you to take the clothes to a place I will give you directions to," GLaDOS said waking them from their thoughts. "Once you get there, I will give you more instructions for what I want you to do, but before you go, come back to my chamber. I need you to give me the necklace."


	2. Chapter 2

When Chelsea woke up, she did not know where she was. When she opened her eyes, she realized that she was lying flat on something. As she looked forward, she became aware that her hands and feet were strapped to a bed. She also noticed that her hair was down and her clothes had been replaced by a knee length hospital gown. Her body felt sore and she looked up to see that she was connected to multiple IV bags and monitors. Her arms, legs, and seemingly the rest of her body minus her head were covered almost completely in bandages, too. She knew that whatever was happening wasn't good. She was now their lab rat to play with as they pleased. Chelsea felt herself shake in fear.

_"Dad, where are you?"_ she started calling out telepathically. _"Dad?"_

"Oh, good! You're awake," she heard GLaDOS say. "Good morning! Well, technically it is four o'clock in the afternoon but you get the picture. Please remain still. You are connected to hundreds of dollars' worth of equipment that I don't want to have to replace."

"What the hell is happening?!" Chelsea asked while trying not to panic. "Where are you? Where am I? What is going on? Where's Brandon?"

She lifted up her head and realized that she was in the black room where she was before just attached to a hospital bed without sheets. GLaDOS pulled over her head.

"Just calm down," she said. "Nothing bad has been happening. You have simply been the subject of multiple invasive medical examinations so you have been out for a while."

"Oh, God," Chelsea said as she felt her heart beat faster. "What have you done to me?"

"I have just been thoroughly examining every inch of your body in order to discover the source of your incredible powers. I haven't changed anything. I made sure everything was put back where it belonged and I simply scanned your brain in order to examine that, so you don't need to worry about a thing. I just woke you up to ask you a few questions. I moved you up here because I thought it would be better if we talked face to face."

GLaDOS then turned away to type something up on a computer monitor nearby.

Quickly, Chelsea created small discs in her hands to cut the straps that were holding down her hands. After cutting the straps holding her hands down by her side, she sat up to cut the ones on her feet.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said GLaDOS who somehow knew what she was doing even though she was still staring at the monitor she was typing on.

"And why not?" Chelsea asked.

"Because those monitors and IV bags you are connected to are keeping you alive. If you were to try to run away right now, you would most likely collapse and die. I would have to go through the work of returning your body to your family, and all my efforts to keep you alive would have gone completely to waste."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"It's up to you if you really want to take that chance. I just think that your mother would be sad to see your dead body. Do you _really_ want to break her heart like that? From the way you were gushing about her earlier, I would have pegged you as being a more caring daughter than that. I guess I was wrong. If you want to be rebellious so badly, you can get up, run around, and then collapse dead. Then I can deliver the body with a handwritten note telling your mother how much you hate her and how you chose to die instead of tolerating her another day more. I can even make it look exactly like your handwriting to be as convincing as possible. I can give you a piece of paper to write on and use as a sample or better yet just let you write the note yourself. Does that sound like a plan?"

Unfortunately, GLaDOS had a point. Chelsea could not risk doing anything to kill herself or hurt her mother, so reluctantly she lay back down. She wrapped her arms around her body and shivered. The room was cold.

"I didn't think so," GLaDOS said continuing her work.

She rolled her eyes and sat up for just a second to cut the straps off of her feet. GLaDOS turned around quickly to see what she was doing but returned to her work once again when she saw that Chelsea was only pulling her legs under the hospital gown to keep herself warm as she laid on her left side.

"Thanks a lot," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "You just broke one of the facility's few post-surgery relaxation beds. It was used to hold down patients during their recovery while their organs were being donated for young women with self-esteem issues. Now, we don't have enough beds to do that anymore because you broke it. How are young women going to get organs now? They will suffer now because of your selfish actions. Congratulations!"

Chelsea ignored her and kept staring off into the distance while trying not to cry from fear. She wanted to pull her arms into her sleeves but she couldn't because of all the wires and IVs attached to them. In her wandering thoughts, she examined the straps around her hands that used to be attached to the bed. They looked like belt wrist bands.

"These are cool," Chelsea thought sadly. "I think that I will keep them to remind me of the past. That is if I ever get out of this place."

She wrapped herself in her arms once again and began to pray in her thoughts.

"God, I'm so sorry," Chelsea prayed in her mind while allowing a few tears to come out. "This really is all my fault. Brandon and I are going to die. I shouldn't have cut off her claw and made her angry. We wouldn't have been caught otherwise. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have let myself get so angry? Now, Brandon is stranded somewhere in the facility and can't escape without me. I'm such an idiot."

She began to sob quietly to herself when she remembered what Brandon had said to her earlier.

"God, you are merciful," she prayed to herself. "I know that. Brandon is right. I can't do anything about what happened, but I can try to make the future better. Please just do something to let me know that you forgive me. I need to know that you're here and will help me in this hell or I'm never going to make it out."

Just then, she looked up to see the robots from earlier, P-Body and Atlas. They were on the other side of the room, messing around with each other. One would start dancing and the other would laugh. Then one would drop his head, and the other would help him put it back on. They would give high fives and dance around again. Chelsea was confused at first, but it then occurred to her why they were acting the way they were.

"They're friends," Chelsea thought. "They must be. I didn't think these robots could have relationships like that. How can they be so happy?"

Chelsea then remembered the affection that P-Body had shown her and stared at him in confusion. That confused her even more. If he was truly kind, then why was he helping GLaDOS? Was all of that just a ruse to distract her while they stuck that syringe in her?

"Aren't you two supposed to be watching over the test subject?" GLaDOS grumbled to the two robots interrupting Chelsea's thoughts. "Why are you acting stupid?"

"Don't mind them," GLaDOS said to Chelsea. "They are just being morons. I would advise you to not give them any _more_ attention. If you do, they will just get worse."

Atlas chirped in affirmation and the two of them stopped goofing around.

"Can't they talk?" Chelsea asked out loud unwittingly.

"No," GLaDOS said. "The engineers never gave them the ability to speak. Thank God! They would just be even more annoying if they could."

Chelsea then took the opportunity to ask, "Are you going to tell me where Brandon is?"

"Not yet, but soon," GLaDOS said soothingly. "You just need to be patient, test subject."

Chelsea shot her a glare and then looked back over at the two robots. P-Body looked up and suddenly noticed that Chelsea was staring at him. Chelsea quickly turned onto her right side to break the eye contact and stared at the wall.

The two robots then spoke to each other in their form of sign language.

P-Body made a freezing motion with his arms and pointed to Chelsea. Atlas nodded in agreement. P-Body made a gesture to leave the room and Atlas followed. About one minute later, they came back into the room, walked over to Chelsea's bed, and tapped her on the shoulder. Chelsea turned over and was surprised at what she saw. Atlas was holding a pillow and P-Body was holding a wool hospital blanket.

"Are those for me?" Chelsea asked in astonishment.

P-Body nodded. Atlas handed her the pillow while P-Body covered her body with the blanket. He then shot a glare at Atlas as he snatched the pillow out of Chelsea's hands, lifted up her head with one hand and slid the pillow under her head with the other. P-Body then carefully lowered her head onto the pillow.

"Thank you," Chelsea said almost in tears in reaction to their kindness. "You both are very nice."

P-Body looked at her in concern again and pulled a tissue out of what looked like the space between his torso and legs with his left hand. He then moved his hand as though he was going to dab her face with it as Atlas shrugged and walked away in annoyance.

"What are you doing?" Chelsea asked in confusion.

P-Body moved his hand in a horizontal motion from each of her temples and then up and down on her cheeks as he evidently was trying to wipe her tear stains away. The action left Chelsea dumbfounded and unsure of how to react. He was comforting her while allowing GLaDOS to torture her. It made little sense, but she had no choice but to go along with it. When he was done, P-Body rubbed Chelsea's head with his right hand.

"Thanks a lot," Chelsea said sincerely touched by the gesture. "You have been very kind. I appreciate it. Thanks!"

The robot nodded and walked away. Chelsea smiled as she watched him walk away. She wrapped the blanket around her body and settled her head on the pillow.

"God, you really are with me," she prayed feeling hope in her heart again. "You will help me. I know we will get through this together."

"Orange has been remarkably gentle with you lately," GLaDOS said once again interrupting Chelsea's thoughts. "It has been quite interesting to watch. You have not been awake to experience most of it, but he has worked very hard to take care of you when you were not being examined and has gone out of his way to see to it that you were comfortable and attended to. Blue has learned some medical things from watching the doctor robots and has helped treat you but has not interacted with you with the degree of tenderness that Orange has. It is remarkable considering that you are the first human that he has interacted with long-term. It's almost like he thinks you're his child. I just thought you would find that interesting."

Chelsea looked at P-Body again and thought, "It seems that you _have_ been looking out for me, God. Thank you! Speaking of looking out for me, where are my parents?"

Chelsea laid on her back and tried calling out to her father telepathically again, but she heard nothing in response.

She had a bad feeling in her stomach about the whole thing. Furthermore, she was growing impatient with GLaDOS. The robot wanted to ask her questions yet she had been typing at that stupid computer for almost five minutes. What was she doing?

"What is taking GLaDOS so long?" she wondered in her head. "It's weird, God. I don't even have the energy to complain. What good would it do? This must be how Mom felt. This must be how modernists felt, too. They stayed silent because they realized complaining was useless."

Chelsea just started resting her eyes. She didn't know or care if GLaDOS would be mad about it or not.

"So," Chelsea said out loud. "Exactly, how long have I been asleep?"

"3 ½ weeks," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea opened her eyes in shock and looked down at her arms and legs, suddenly noticing how skinny she was.

"Have I lost weight?" she asked.

"Despite our best efforts to keep you nourished, your body has lost some weight. You have lost 20 pounds to be precise."

"Look, are you going to ask me the damn questions or can I just go back to sleep?"

Ignoring her apparent rudeness, GLaDOS said, "Just a second….Done."

GLaDOS pressed enter, pushed the computer aside, and then turned to face Chelsea. GLaDOS adjusted the bed so that Chelsea was sitting upright and facing her.

"Sorry about that," GLaDOS said insincerely. "I had anticipated you taking longer to shake off the effects of the anesthetics so I took the time to finish adding the findings of your examinations to your file."

"What exactly did you find out?" Chelsea asked.

"I'm supposed to be asking the questions, not you. I will discuss the results of your examination later."

Chelsea rolled her eyes in response to cover up her fear.

"So, first off," GLaDOS began. "Do you have any brothers and sisters?"

"Biologically, no," Chelsea replied.

"Why is that? Was your mother's pregnancy with you too difficult?"

"Yes…wait a second; I don't have to talk to you. I have no reason to."

"I thought this might happen, so I have given you some incentive."

With that, GLaDOS used her claw to pick up Chelsea's red necklace off of the top of one of the monitors. Chelsea opened her mouth in shock.

Then she said, "Give that back! My mother made that for me."

"Did she now?" GLaDOS said. "It is quite lovely. I never knew your mother could do anything constructive."

"I said give it back!" Chelsea yelled as she created a blue circular orb from her hands.

Chelsea made the orb go around the claw that was holding her necklace and though she was weak, she tried to use it to pull the claw off of the wire it was attached to so that she could get her necklace back. GLaDOS, not wanting to have another broken claw, caused another claw to come down from the ceiling and quickly clamped it over Chelsea's hands, causing Chelsea to break concentration and dissolve the orb around GLaDOS's other claw.

"I will once the questions are over _if_ you cooperate with me," GLaDOS said as she handed the necklace to P-Body out of Chelsea's sight as she struggled fruitlessly to get her hands out of GLaDOS's.

Chelsea stopped struggling, thought for a second and then said, "It's only a necklace. I don't need to risk myself for a piece of jewelry."

"How mature of you," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "I was going to give you something else, too. I was going to spare the life of your boyfriend."

"What?!"

"He is testing right now. He is doing well. His powers enable him to cheat a great deal like yours will but I could make the test harder and even impossible at any time. He might not survive, and his ghost would haunt you forever."

"You wouldn't! You would lose a test subject!"

"I would still have you," GLaDOS said. "So anyways, are you going to cooperate or not?"

"Yes," Chelsea sadly agreed as GLaDOS let go of her hands.

"Good. Now back to what I was asking you before. Why did your Mother only ever have you?"

"She almost died. Okay? She was sick almost the entire time. She recovered after I was born and never was able to have another child."

"Interesting. Was Chell a good mother to you? Was she ever neglectful, abusive, or overindulging?"

"NO! She was a great mother. She always loved me and she always will. She never cared that I was different and I never cared that she had nightmares about this hell hole!"

"Did she fit in with the other people? She was so unlikeable."

"That was because she was isolated, you bitch! Everyone in the congregation loves her. She has many friends. They're the family that she never had."

"Are you trying to make me feel guilty? I find all of this fascinating."

"You would. Is that all?"

"No. How did you and your boyfriend get your powers?"

Chelsea was silent for a few moments.

GLaDOS pressed on. "Well?"

"We ate magic beans," Chelsea said with the straightest face she could.

Then putting a finger to her head as if she were thinking of something intelligent, she continued, "…after getting covered in radioactive goo and sacrificing some animals to some ancient pagan gods."

"Don't be sassy with me," GLaDOS said shaking her head. "You do not want to make me angry. You remember what happened last time."

"Yeah, I'm still feeling it."

"Then, stop stalling and talk. Your boyfriend's life is on the line you know."

"We were born with our powers and we don't really know why we have them," Chelsea said slowly looking down. "We think our bodies have been affected by some kind of radiation from the alien wars. We call it an act of God because it has helped us survive in these times of hardship."

"Really? Are there others like you in your congregation?"

"Yes."

"Interesting," GLaDOS said surprisingly not pushing the matter any further. "That is all. You can have your necklace back now."

With that, P-Body walked over and dropped the red-beaded necklace into Chelsea's lap. Chelsea quickly put it on before GLaDOS changed her mind as P-Body walked away wondering what he could do to make her feel happy.

"What was the point of that?" Chelsea asked.

"Science," GLaDOS said. "Before presenting my findings to you, I had to know a few more facts about your life. Although, I will admit part of it was selfish on my part. I let your mother go as you probably know after she helped me gain my position back from Wheatley so I wanted to know how she was living her life."

"So, what was the result of my examination?"

"First of all, were you aware that you have a serious case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder? I found it when I was scanning your brain."

Chelsea lifted her head up in exasperation.

"My father is a psychologist," Chelsea said in annoyance. "_Of course_, I knew that. What_ else_ did you do?"

"Calm down, test subject," GLaDOS said. "You are making your heart rate go up. Anyways, I think the origin of your powers is different from the origin of your boyfriend's powers."

"What do you mean?"

"Create a disc."

Reluctantly, Chelsea obeyed. However, her attention was quickly averted to the two robots across the room and her disc disappeared. P-Body had removed Atlas's head and was running around with it. Atlas was upset and chasing after him. Chelsea could not suppress a chuckle. The robots were simply too funny and unnaturally happy for such a dark and gloomy place. She did not notice GLaDOS talking.

"Are you even listening to me?" GLaDOS asked. "Hello?"

Chelsea was watching the robots. The more they ran around the harder she laughed.

GLaDOS then finally noticed what was happening.

"Stop it, you two," she said. "You need to stop that right now!"

They kept going and Chelsea continued to laugh. She hadn't been this happy since she arrived at the place. It reminded her of the goofing around she would do with her friends. P-Body ran around her bed and continued to play his game of keep away with Atlas's head ignoring GLaDOS's reprimands completely. Chelsea snatched the head from him with her orb and pulled it to herself so that it was sitting on her lap.

"Thank you," GLaDOS said in relief.

Chelsea then put up a force field around Atlas's body, signaled for P-Body to run away, removed the force field from Atlas's body, and then threw his head like basketball. P-Body did a running dive and caught the head. Chelsea had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard.

"I think this farce has gone on long enough," GLaDOS said.

She snatched the head from P-Body and tossed it back to Atlas who quickly put it back on.

"I have had just about enough from you two," GLaDOS said angrily. "If it weren't for the fact that your antics have calmed down the subject's heart rate, you would both be disassembled. Now, get back in the corner before I change my mind."

The two robots gave out shrieks and quickly ran back to the corner.

"God, it's like dealing with a pair of children," GLaDOS said frustrated.

"You were no help either," she said looking at Chelsea who responded by flashing a cheeky smile.

"Anyways, where were we? Oh, yes, I remember. Make a shield."

Chelsea again reluctantly obeyed. GLaDOS created a pathway of blue light that looked very similar to her force fields.

"What do you think?" GLaDOS asked.

"They're the same color," Chelsea replied. "So, what?"

"They're more similar than that," GLaDOS continued. "Your shields and discs and this light beam are made out of the exact same material."

"What?" Chelsea said dissolving her shield. "That's not possible."

"It's true," GLaDOS continued. "I analyzed your blood and I found the same material that makes up the light beams in it."

"How did this happen?" Chelsea replied.

"That is the interesting part. It happened because of your mother."

"What?"

"Your mother did not know it at the time, but as she ran those tests with the light beams, the material was seeping into her skin. The tests were not numerous but the radiation was powerful enough to have an effect. It did not affect Chell herself. She was only a carrier but it spread to you because it was in her blood when you were conceived. It was in your entire body and your mind developed the nerves it needed to be controlled as if it was a ligament. Therefore, you were born with the ability to create these light beams and manipulate them however you chose. Be it to cut, to protect, or to fly. That also could explain why your mother was so ill and was unable to have more children. With all the hormonal changes her body was going through, the photons were surging in her body affecting it greatly. It could have killed you but it didn't. You were able to survive because of your father's inherited mutant genes which I found in your DNA also. All the other children that your mother tried to have were just not so lucky. It really can be said that your existence is an act of God."

"And Brandon?"

"He got his powers from radiation of another source that can't be identified on our database."

Chelsea was shocked. She put her head in her hands.

"I can't believe this," she said.

"I know," GLaDOS replied happily. "I never would have thought that our testing would have this effect on people. You see, our subjects were never allowed to have children. They were kept apart from each other so intercourse was impossible. We only wanted adults to take the tests. We never wanted to deal with children. Who knew that we were creating the potential for a new breed of human to emerge all along?"

Chelsea began getting a cold feeling in her spine. She did not like the way GLaDOS talked about this "new breed of human" and all of the implied connotations it had yet she remained silent so GLaDOS talked on.

"You and your boyfriend truly are godsends," GLaDOS said. "I now have a new direction of scientific possibilities to explore. You see, I have been at a loss for purpose lately. I tested those two morons over there and had them find more humans for me to test, but I used them all up too quickly. I then raised three crows, and they kept me occupied for a while. However, they eventually escaped and left me, the ungrateful little monsters. After that, I took up the hobby of trapping humans. I have managed to successfully catch a good number of them. Right now, I have 100 people. It seems that a disaster has befallen your world. Many humans have come by looking for shelter or for food or things like that. Mostly, there were individuals but sometimes I would get lucky and catch a really large group. Those times were rare though, and I was stuck with taking my time to build up a large number of people before beginning to test again. I had no choice because I didn't want to use them all up too quickly like before. Most humans are so fragile. They die so easily. Chell was the best out of all of them, the only one who could complete all the tests. I wish I did not have to let her go."

"Why did you do it then?" Chelsea asked looking up.

"I was emotionally compromised and having her around did not help," GLaDOS said concisely. "She was a lot more trouble than she was worth so I gave her what she wanted. Anyway, that does not matter now. What does matter is that I have something else to do now. I am so happy that I am actually feeling a little generous. How about you and I watch your boyfriend complete the tests?"

"He is not my boyfriend," Chelsea said. "I told you already. He's my friend."

"Whatever," GLaDOS said as she pulled a monitor in front of Chelsea's bed.

Instantly on the screen was an image of Brandon with portal gun running through a chamber and trying to complete a test. However, something was weird. First off, it did not make sense how he could be running around if GLaDOS had just worked on him like she did her. Second, he was wearing his normal clothes. Third, he wasn't trying to run away and he could walk through walls. Chelsea moved closer to the monitor in order to get a better look.

Chelsea did not ask any of these questions aloud, but GLaDOS seemed to know her thoughts.

"I bet you are wondering why he isn't leaving the test chambers," she said.

Chelsea looked right at her.

Then GLaDOS continued, "That is because I have placed him in testing chambers that are suspended in mid-air. He can't fly so whenever he tries to phase through the walls he only encounters air. There is no way out for him."

Chelsea retorted sarcastically, "He isn't wearing the stupid ass uniform either. I'm actually kind of disappointed."

"I wanted to distinguish you from the normal test subjects. Unfortunately, the only color we have is orange so for now he is wearing you will wear your own clothes."

"Thank God!"

They watched him for several minutes. Chelsea never let onto it but she hoped that he would find a way to escape and find her. She didn't want him to suffer. She was secretly rooting for him to escape. However, there was one question that Chelsea knew had to be asked.

"GLaDOS," Chelsea asked. "How is he able to run around like that? Did you not do to him what you did to me?"

"No, we didn't. We did run a few tests on him and he recovered from that quickly enough. However when I saw the results of your blood test, I decided to hold you back for much longer causing your body to degrade much more rapidly. Physically, you are nowhere near ready to run through the tests. You will need a few more weeks of rest before such a thing is even conceivable. Don't worry though. Once you recover, it will be your turn."

"My turn?"

"Yes, you will run through the tests too just like your mother. I want to see your powers at work."

"Be careful what you wish for," Chelsea thought to herself.

"Then once that is over, we will make preparations for the real experiment."

"What do you mean real experiment?" Chelsea said as she began to feel her heart rate rise.

"Tell me," GLaDOS said. "How much do you like your friend? Would you like to have a child with him?"

Chelsea felt her face turn red.

"What?" She said. "No way! No! Why would you ask such a thing? We aren't even married!"

"Your powers are the result of exposure to the light beams of this facility," GLaDOS said calmly. "If you were born with these powers, how many other mutants do you think could be bred? I don't like the process myself, but we have to discover if exposure to these light beams really has this effect on humans or if this was just a one-time occurrence. Even if I am not a fan of the human reproductive process, this is the only way to go, for science."

"You can't force people to have sex, you psycho!"

"Who said anything about forcing people to have sex? I was just going to use artificial insemination. The process is less disgusting that way. Of course, we have a lot to figure out before we even begin the process. I don't know the first thing about impregnating women. I don't know how to care for babies either. The facility is not equipped to care for infants. Who would care for them? Would their parents or would someone else? Who would educate them? I have a lot that I need to figure out before I even think about impregnating anyone."

"You are missing the point, GLaDOS! This is unholy! There are some things that science and people just can't do."

"You naïve child," GLaDOS said slowly as she zoomed in on Chelsea's face. "There is nothing that science can't do. There is nothing that I can't do either."

"Well, I'm not going through with it," Chelsea said. "I'm too young. I don't want to be violated by a robot."

"Excuse me," GLaDOS said. "But I don't recall ever saying that I gave the smallest amount of shit for anything that you wanted. You are going to be a mother whether you like it or not."

Chelsea responded with a shocked silence. She could not believe what was happening. All she could do was pray. She was shaking.

"Now, now, calm down," GLaDOS said. "Your heart rate has gone up again. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the antics of the future father of your children. You don't need to worry about pregnancy until your tests are done. For now though, you need to rest. In fact…Orange, come over here."

P-Body walked up to GLaDOS.

GLaDOS instructed him, "Hold her for a few minutes. We need to put some sheets on her bed so she can sleep. She has cooled down enough."

P-Body walked up to Chelsea and lifted her up in his arms being careful not to break off any of the IVs or monitor wires. She was still wrapped in the blanket, so she was swaddled like a baby.

Chelsea thought to herself that she must have lost weight. The robot didn't shake in the least. Was she really that light?

"Don't drop her. She is very valuable and very fragile right now," GLaDOS said.

P-Body nodded his head and stepped aside. Chelsea was too scared to say a word so she just remained silent.

"Blue, would you do the honor of actually making the bed?" GLaDOS asked.

Atlas shrugged his shoulders and moaned.

"Do it!" GLaDOS yelled.

As quick as a flash, Atlas ran out the door and within a minute came back with the sheets. He simply threw the sheets on the bed and started walking away.

"That is not how you make a bed," GLaDOS said. "Don't tell me that you don't know how to do this."

Atlas shook his head.

"Unbelievable," GLaDOS said.

P-Body laughed but the young woman in his arms was not laughing at all. She was not paying attention to the scene unfolding. She was praying. She was scared out of her mind.

_"God, help me!"_ she yelled quickly in her mind. _"Get us out of this nightmare. I don't want to be tested. I don't want to be knocked up. I don't want to bear children who will be taken away from me to be lab rats. You can't let her get away with this. Where in the hell are my parents? Why aren't they here yet? Oh, God! Help me!"_

Chelsea continued to shake unconsciously and P-Body noticing her fear tried to rock her back and forth like a baby and hummed something that sounded like a lullaby. The irony of the image was too much for her.

"STOP," Chelsea screamed at him.

P-Body immediately froze and looked at GLaDOS who was trying to instruct Atlas on how to make a bed.

"Don't worry about her, Orange," GLaDOS said. "She's a bit upset right now. We'll be done soon…hopefully. You should be able to put her down in a few minutes."

Just then, Chelsea heard an answer to her prayers.

"_Chelsea_," her Dad, Zaki, said telepathically. _"Chelsea, are you there?"_

_"Dad,"_ Chelsea replied telepathically with tears in her eyes. _"Thank God! Where have you been?"_

_"We're here in the facility but there have been some setbacks that have held us up."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"We broke into the facility but GLaDOS found us."_

Chelsea felt her heart sink. Why had GLaDOS not mentioned it?

_"What happened? Where is Mom?"_ she asked.

_"We all got separated after GLaDOS turned on some kind of anesthetic gas. Some of us including me were caught. Sylvie got away and after wandering for what she said was over three weeks she found me and broke me out. Now, we are trying to find everybody else. So far, the only other people we have found are Kayla and Pastor Roberts. Roberts went on ahead to check for traps and we're looking for your mother and the others now."_

Sylvie, Chelsea's French friend, was a technological telepath. She was not only a technological genius but had the ability to make anything mechanical or technological bend to her will. She was 30 years old and had long blond hair and blue eyes. She was kind, shy, and reserved yet very confident and capable. Her parents were also technological telepaths who worked in weapons manufacturing and computer technology for the French National Army. During the invasion of the Combines, they sent her to live with their friend Roberts. She was only ten at the time, and they did not want her to be in danger. Sylvie had not heard much from them since then, but she feared the worst. Chell and she had become best friends not long after Chelsea was born, so to Chelsea, she was like a big sister.

Kayla was a little different. She was only twelve years old and had no arms or legs, but she had powerful telekinetic powers and a very optimistic attitude. She had short, red hair and brown eyes. She was also the granddaughter of Pastor Roberts. Her parents were rebels in the fight against the Combines. They lost their lives in a fight when Kayla was only 9 months old. The other soldiers brought her to Pastor Roberts along with the news of her parents' death. Though Pastor Roberts was devastated, he still loved her as his own. She brightened up those dark days with her encouraging smile and happy attitude. Chelsea helped care for her and saw her as a little sister.

Zaki, Chelsea's dad as mentioned before, was a 45 year old telepath who was very confident, very clever, assertive while not being too talkative, and yet very understanding, gentle, and kind. A good portion of his personality traits were inherited by Chelsea. He seemed to have the ability to figure out anything and be the voice of reason which was a great help to them all. He was a friend of the pastor and the best friend of Brandon's dad, Roscoe.

_"How many people did you bring?"_ Chelsea asked.

_"Besides, your mother, me, Sylvie, Roberts, and Kayla, we brought four other people. We brought Jeff, Albina, Hugo, and Roscoe,"_ said Zaki.

Jeff had the power to shape shift, Albina had the power to create ice and snow and control water as well as fly on the winter winds she created, Hugo could create fire and fly as a burning ball of fire, and Roscoe could heal others and himself.

Jeff was a true nerd. At 19, he was endlessly intelligent but slightly socially awkward when it came to people due to the fact that he thought more logically and often had trouble understanding the emotions of others. He was kind though so no one minded. He was skinny with green eyes, a head of dark, curly hair, and olive skin.

Albina was 17 and had white hair, almost crystal-like white skin, icy blue eyes, and almost purple lips. She was very mature and wise for her age. The best way to describe Albina would be that she was someone who had made peace with her difficult life. She was at peace in her heart in spite of all that had happened to her. She decided to have joy and trust God even though she did not understand all the bad circumstances in her life. She enjoyed reading books, talking about deep topics, and being alone more than Chelsea did and was more of a mystic who knew almost everything about theology. She was very calm, confident, and dignified, but Albina was very joyful, fun-loving, and enjoyed being involved in relationships with people, too. She was also very clever and enjoyed messing with people. Albina would say things to people to make them think or to see how they would react. She had the potential to be manipulative if she wanted to be. She was also very ambitious and planned on trying to defeat the Combines herself. She and Chelsea were closer than sisters. Chelsea's family had practically taken over raising her. Her mother was a Russian diplomat who fell in love with a male diplomat from Cote d'Ivoire. They married then fled to America through Siberia to escape the Combines. They both died in the process leaving their children to take care of each other. Her step-brother Hugo was a 25 year old African with tattoos all over his body. He was sensitive and struggled more with depression than his sister did. He preferred to only talk about deep subjects and was thus a perfect philosophical conversationalist for Chelsea.

Roscoe was Brandon's Dad. He looked almost exactly like Brandon except taller and older of course. He was 45. Roscoe had the power to heal others and himself. He was a loving and witty doctor with a hilarious sense of humor and positive outlook on life despite the fact that his wife ran away when Brandon was two.

Chelsea was friends with all of these people. They were all a family in Christ.

_"Can you find them?"_ asked Chelsea.

_"We will,"_ said Zaki as calmly as he could. _"We are looking for everyone, sweetheart, including you and Brandon._ _Sylvie has been trying to read the minds of some cores that she found in order to get a better idea of this place's layout but it's not easy. This place is huge. It will take her some time to download the entire map into her brain. In the meantime, tell me what has happened. What has she done to you?"_

_"Dad, GLaDOS is insane. I'm here in the main room where she is. She has been running multiple invasive examinations on me in order to find out the source of my powers. I feel sore and weak and I have lost about 20 pounds in weight, but besides that I feel fine. She has me connected to multiple IV bags and monitors in order to keep me alive as she says. She found out that my powers came from radiation in the hard light bridges of the test chambers in this facility. Mom was exposed to it and it stuck to her DNA but the effects only showed up in me. That's why I can do what I do. Now however, she wants to test me when I recover. Then she wants to use Brandon to impregnate me and use others too probably in order to see if more mutants could be created."_

_"Oh my, God!"_

_"What's more Brandon is testing right now and he could die at any moment. Dad, please help us! We have to get out of here. I don't want to be forced into pregnancy. I don't want to test. I just want to leave this nightmare. I also want to destroy this psycho and make sure that she won't hurt anyone ever again. Dad, I'm so scared."_

_"The priority is getting everyone out alive. We don't want to have to fight her if it isn't necessary. Don't worry though. We will find you and get you out. Don't worry."_

_"Dad, she has 100 other people trapped here. We should help them, too."_

_"We'll figure that out later."_

_"Dad, I'm pretty sure that she is about to put me to sleep again. What do I do?"_

"We're done with the bed, Orange," GLaDOS said. "You can put her down now."

P-Body put Chelsea down on the bed as gently as he could and patted her on the head. Chelsea wasn't paying attention to him however. As she was being put down on the bed, Chelsea noticed something on the monitor. Brandon was in the elevator and supposed to be going down to the next chamber but he jumped up and phased through the top and was currently in the process of climbing up by phasing one arm and leg through the wall at a time.

GLaDOS noticed quickly and said to him through the speakers, "You need to stop doing that immediately. You could break the machine. I said to stop. Stop!"

Chelsea knew that if she wanted to help Brandon then she needed to act fast.

_"Dad, Brandon is trying to escape,"_ Chelsea said. _"Telepathically search for Brandon. I'm going to help him."_

Before her Dad had a chance to reply, Chelsea began to act out a quickly thought out plan. First, she jumped off the bed onto a hover disc she had shot out of her hands dropping the blanket onto the floor.

"What are you doing?!" GLaDOS yelled.

She broke off the IVs and monitor wires and flew straight to P-Body. She wrapped her left arm around him and created a disc with her free arm dissolving the disc that she was flying on.

"Don't come any closer or I'll cut him to pieces!" Chelsea screamed. "Where is Brandon?! Tell me!"

Atlas was frozen with fear, but GLaDOS was unfazed.

"You really should have thought out this plan better," GLaDOS said condescendingly. "You know that we can't die, right? If you cut him up, I can simply reassemble him."

"Good luck finding all the pieces," Chelsea said.

Chelsea put up a hover disc under her and P-Body's feet. She put up a force field around herself and P-Body then she quickly backed out of the room.

"You're still very physically weak you know," GLaDOS said. "You have adrenaline running through your body now, but once it wears off you will collapse onto the floor. I implore you to give up fighting immediately and return to your bed. Even if I were to tell you exactly where your friend was, you still don't have the energy to get to him. Just give it up."

"NO!" Chelsea yelled.

Then turning to P-Body, she said, "I don't want to have to hurt you, but I will if I have to. Show me where Brandon is! Which way do I go?"

P-Body pointed left. Chelsea dissolved her shield, threw a large disc in the direction of GLaDOS who immediately swerved to avoid it, and quickly flew left. Atlas immediately started running after them at full speed but Chelsea flew more quickly than he could run so he was left behind soon enough. Chelsea flew down a really long hallway for several minutes using her discs to break down every video camera that she saw. In the process, she told her Dad what was happening out loud. Sylvie and Kayla listened in, too.

_"Great job, Chelsea!"_ Kayla yelled. _"Way to kick ass!"_

Zaki seemed more taken aback by her actions. He didn't know what to say.

_"I didn't know you had it in you, Chelsea,_" Zaki said with concern. _"I don't want GLaDOS to drive you mad."_

"Dad," Chelsea started. "I'm desperate. I didn't know what else to do. I won't kill him. I'll let him go as soon as I get to Brandon."

_"Don't,"_ Sylvie said. _"I can hack into his mind and use him as a guide."_

"Good thinking! Dad, get talking to Brandon. Owwww!"

Chelsea had slammed into a wall without noticing. It was a dead end. She and P-Body fell to the ground. They both stood up and faced each other.

"What is this?!" Chelsea yelled. "I thought you were going to lead me to Brandon. How dare you double-cross me!"

P-Body simply crossed his arms, looked away, and gave out an "Hmph!"

"Tell me where he is now, you jerk!"

P-Body remained silent.

"Tell me!" Chelsea yelled as she created a disc and cut off his right leg.

P-Body fell to the ground and pulled up his arms to shield his face. At the sight of him, Chelsea's legs gave out under her, and her eyes welled up with tears.

"I'm sorry!" Chelsea said. "I'm so sorry! I didn't want to hurt you. I'm just desperate to save my friend. Please forgive me! You have been so kind and funny! You are too good for a place like this."

Chelsea crawled closer to him and P-Body let his arms fall to his side.

"Please help me!" Chelsea continued more quickly and in increasing desperation. "I have nowhere else to turn. She is going to hurt me and she's going to hurt my friend. You understand what a friend is. I see you and the little blue robot. You two are friends, right? You goof around but when push comes to shove you would do anything for each other."

P-Body nodded.

"That's how I feel about my friend. He's in trouble. My entire family is in trouble, too. We're all trapped here. I need to help them. I would do anything for them. You have to understand. I need to save them. I want to help them like you would help your friend. I'm sure you don't like this place. I can take you and your friend to the outside where the sun is and you can see the world's beauty. I'll take you and we can take care of each other like a real family not like GLaDOS does. She will never care about you, but we will. Heck! I have a friend who is a technological genius and can give you all the updates and repairs you will ever need. Please! I need your help. There's no way that we can get out of here without you. Please! Please help us! Please help me! For the love of God, please!"

P-Body looked upon her with a sympathetic eye. Chelsea continued to cry right in front of him on her hands and knees with her face toward the ground. She prayed. She was scared to death. Her body was beginning to throb and ache uncontrollably to the point where she had trouble moving. GLaDOS had been right. P-Body lifted his right hand and bent over so that he could put it on Chelsea's shoulder. At the touch, Chelsea looked up and saw him pull out a tissue. Chelsea smiled but then started coughing up blood on the floor.

"How cute," GLaDOS said over the PA system. "You're using emotional pleas with robots. You must be really desperate."

"I destroyed all the cameras," Chelsea said as she felt herself grow cold with fear. "How did you…"

"There are antennae on Orange and Blue that send me signals. I can see through their eyes and hear with their ears."

Chelsea swiped P-Body's hand off of her and began crawling backwards down the hall as P-Body stared after her rather sadly.

"So, it was you who contacted your father through telepathy," said GLaDOS. "That's incredible. I had my suspicions all along. I didn't tell you when they arrived because I simply didn't want to set you off. I caught a few of them but the rest including your mother have scattered across the facility. Now however, we can find them. Why don't you just tell me where they are? I would so like to see your mutant family and friends and even your mother, Chell. We can talk about it as you are falling asleep. Speaking of which, you don't look too good. You're also making quite a mess with all the blood you've been coughing up. We had better send you back to bed before it gets any worse."

_"Dad, did you hear all that?"_ Chelsea asked telepathically.

_"Yes,"_ was his reply. _"Run and pray, baby. Sylvie will guide you to us. Just run."_

Chelsea summoned up her last bit of strength, stood up, and ran for her life. She kept trying to create discs to fly on but they kept dissolving. She was just too tired and weak to keep them up. Finally, she came across a locked door that looked like it led to some stairs. Chelsea created a disc and slid it into the cracks to chisel away the locks of the door. The process was too slow so she decided to keep hacking at it until it finally appeared ready to give way.

However before she could deliver the last blow, she felt something grabbing her arms and next her legs. It held her arms so that they were against her chest. It was Atlas who looked angry that she had tried to hurt his best friend. He looked around for P-Body and was dismayed when he couldn't see him anywhere.

"Don't worry, Blue," GLaDOS said. "Orange is alive. He is missing a leg because of her but he is still very much alive. You can retrieve him as soon as you bring her back."

Atlas glared at Chelsea, nodded in the direction of the ceiling, and carried her off down the hall back to GLaDOS's room.

"No!" Chelsea yelled. "I'm sorry! I didn't really mean to hurt him! Put me down! Put me down! Please put me down!"

Atlas completely ignored her pleas and eventually her body's pain and her growing pain with breathing made her stop screaming as she realized with horror that there was nothing she could do. She was leaning against Atlas and breathing painfully with tears in her eyes when they reentered the terrifying black room.

"There, you are," GLaDOS said with a false tone of concern causing Chelsea to look up. "You look awful. I told you that you could die if you didn't listen to me. Honestly, what were you thinking? Your last operation was less than four hours ago. Your body is literally being held together with dozens of stitches. In the state it's in, exertion is a terrible idea. Your body is like a piñata, filled to the brim with candy. If you hurt it in any way, the candy will burst out. Except for you, what comes out would not be candy but all your internal organs. I tried to strap you down to keep you from moving. I tried to discourage you from moving, too. However, you ignored me and stubbornly went your way just like your mother. I should have known that this would happen. Stubbornness runs in the blood after all."

Atlas then laid her on the bed and she curled up in pain on her right side so that she didn't have to look at any of them.

"Blue," GLaDOS said. "I have obtained and sanitized the new IV and monitor wires already. Before you go, would you connect them into her before she grows any worse?"

Atlas readily obeyed.

When he was done, Atlas looked up to see P-Body limping to the door using his disconnected right leg as a crutch. Atlas ran to him immediately. GLaDOS looked at his condition then looked back at Chelsea.

GLaDOS adjusted the bed to lie down, used her claw to pull the covers over Chelsea's body, and used the other now fixed claw to pull an oxygen mask over Chelsea's face. It was then that Chelsea began to feel sleepy and realized that she had most likely been connected to an IV with a tranquilizer in it. Chelsea figured that would happen, but she also knew that she was too weak to fight off GLaDOS or do anything to stop her in this state. She fought hard to keep the tears from welling up without being very successful.

"You're the one who got yourself into this mess," said GLaDOS seeing her tears and picking up the blanket that was on the floor and laying it on top of Chelsea. "I didn't want to put you to sleep right away. You had been asleep for three and a half weeks for your eighteen invasive examinations after all. I was going to be nice and let you stay awake with me so we could watch your children's future sire. You had to be the one to act up and hurt yourself. You are really a pain you know. If you weren't so valuable to my research, I would just kill you. But since you are so valuable for right now, I will let the tranquilizers in your intravenous fluid put you to sleep so that you don't have to keep glaring at me with her eyes."

"GLaDOS," Sylvie yelled over the loud speakers in her authentic French accent. "You are not going to get away with hurting her! Once we find you, you are dead! Don't worry, Chelsea! We're coming for you! Don't give up! Sois forte! Dieu est avec toi. (Be strong! God is with you!)"

"You have one thing going for you," GLaDOS said. "You have friends. Your mother almost never had any of those."

_"They're right,"_ Chelsea thought to herself sleepily. _"God is with me but he is not with her. How sad!"_

Knowing this and knowing that her family and friends were coming for her made her feel much better. The fluid flowed into Chelsea's veins and she had no choice but to let it. She felt slightly better because the pain of her stitches began to fade as the pain medication took effect.

As Chelsea rolled off her right side and onto her back, GLaDOS played the images of Brandon still climbing out of the elevator shaft on a monitor she pulled right over Chelsea's bed.

"I have a trap set for your friend as soon as he gets out of there," GLaDOS said coldly as she reached her head down left next to Chelsea's bed. "It is too bad that you are too weak to help him and that I am not going to tell you what it is. You can neither protect him nor get your father to tell him what to look out for. That must really upset you. I suppose you just have to ask God to watch over him."

Chelsea started tearing up again and shaking in fear and anger.

Then GLaDOS turned to Atlas and P-Body and said, "Good work, you two! You both did very well. Now, go get Orange fixed and take a break. I can take it from here."

GLaDOS then turned back and resumed watching Chelsea.

Atlas put himself under P-Body's arm to give him support and started to leave the room. However, P-Body kept watching Chelsea. He wouldn't move. Atlas chirped at him to ask what was going on. P-Body pointed at Chelsea. Atlas turned away apathetically but P-Body kept pointing at her. He pointed at her, he pointed at the two of them, and he pointed outside. Atlas hit P-Body on the side of the head in order to tell him that he was crazy. P-Body grabbed Atlas's head and made him look him in the eye. He lifted up his hand, took Atlas's hand, squeezed it tightly, and then pointed to him and to Atlas. It was his way of explaining that they were friends. Atlas nodded to show that he indeed understood. Then P-Body pointed to Chelsea and to the image of Brandon on the screen. He took his two hands and squeezed them together to explain they were friends, too. P-Body grabbed Atlas's head and forced him to look at her and her friend. Soon, Atlas began to feel bad, too. P-Body held his hands together and pleaded for his friend to help. Atlas hesitantly nodded his head. P-Body moved up and down excitedly. However, Atlas put his finger to his face to symbolize silence and then pointed to GLaDOS. Then Atlas pointed to himself and to P-Body and tapped his head with a finger. If they were going to pull this off, they would need to think about what they were doing and make plans. P-Body nodded in agreement and the two left the room. They had a lot to do.

Chelsea was listening to her father, Sylvie, and Kayla pray for her telepathically to comfort her.

_"God, protect my baby. Don't let her be scared. Let her know that you are with her no matter what happens," _Zaki said.

_"Allow us to be successful in our mission of fighting GLaDOS and protecting the ones we love," _Sylvie prayed.

_"God, grant us the ability to kick that robot's ass,"_ Kayla prayed.

Chelsea prayed with her hands resting on top of her chest.

_"God, I know she used to be human but she isn't anymore,"_ Chelsea prayed in her mind. _"She's a monster. Protect me from what she is planning and help us get out of here alive."_

Chelsea was nervous but somehow felt less scared than before.

"Are you asleep yet?" GLaDOS asked as she continued watching the monitor from her spot to the left of Chelsea's bed.

Chelsea turned her head to GLaDOS and said tiredly, "'The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet…Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.'"

"I'll take that as a no," said GLaDOS. "That is a passage from the Bible."

"It is from Nahum 1 to be exact."

"And the point of that was?"

"These words are a prophecy for you. They originally were written for Ninevah, but they apply to all evil people. God has let you have your way for a while, but your time is coming. That is how he works. Up until now, he has been giving you time to change. You think you are invincible because you have control of a fortress and an army. Ninevah had the same kind of things, too. They had tall and thick walls and an unconquerable military, but God obliterated them off the face of the earth for their extravagant cruelty. They were killed by the Babylonian Army that they never thought would have the power to beat them. Skeptics never even believed the place existed until archaeologists found its remains thousands of years later. Unless you repent, the same is going to happen to you. God is bringing judgment your way and you will not be able to stop it unless you repent and receive the forgiveness of Christ. That is what you will need to do because if you don't you and this place are going to be destroyed so completely that you will only survive in the horror stories that people tell of you. The skeptics will say you never lived and until they find your remains, only God, us survivors, and the souls of your victims who surround you in hell will know the truth. You may be in robot form, but God is still over you, Caroline."

"You have guts," said GLaDOS in surprise.

That was all she could say at the moment. She was almost speechless. Chelsea was unlike any subject she had ever had before. She was emaciated, weak, and barely conscious but had the gall to declare holy war on a robot that could destroy her in an instant. She had a supernatural confidence that GLaDOS found disturbing and didn't know what to make of.

"That is something else that you have going for you," GLaDOS said. "Only time will tell if it will help you or get you killed. Who will carry out this judgment of God you speak of? You?"

"Damn straight," Chelsea said.

Just then, Chelsea created a disc with her right hand and used it to cut through the monitor above her bed making it completely not functional and leaving GLaDOS without a way to watch Brandon.

"No," GLaDOS said in suppressed panic.

GLaDOS frantically pulled up another monitor to look for Brandon, but by the time she did, he had disappeared.

"You horrible, little monster," GLaDOS said as she turned back around to Chelsea to give her a death glare.

Unfortunately, Chelsea had already fallen asleep with a cheeky smile on her face.


	3. Chapter 3

Chelsea was under for about four hours before she saw her family again. She was not awake to see them though because GLaDOS watched over her to make sure that her family never got close enough to take her away.

However, GLaDOS could not see what was going on inside Chelsea's mind. While she was unconscious, Chelsea had a dream. She was wearing her normal clothes again and the whole world around her was completely white. She looked around in confusion until she heard her father's voice.

"Chelsea? Chelsea, can you hear me?" Zaki asked.

"Yes, Dad, I can hear you. Is it really you? Where are you?" Chelsea replied.

"Yes, it's really me. We're in your mind, but this is not a dream."

Then Zaki appeared right before her. It was him. He was wearing his signature Alabama Football t-shirt and jeans with tennis shoes. It completely looked weird for a Japanese man with glasses, but of course, he never cared much about his appearance.

"How long have I been asleep?" Chelsea asked.

"Not long. It has only been several hours since I last talked to you."

"Daddy, how is this happening?"

"I'm telepathic. Remember? I have learned how to use my powers to enter dreams. It's not hard."

Chelsea walked up to him and gave him a hug, and then said, "In any other circumstance, I would probably be weirded out, but right now, I am just unbelievably happy to see you, Dad."

"I'm happy to see you, too," Zaki said as he hugged her back. "We have been so worried. That reminds me. I have a surprise for you. I brought company."

Just then, Sylvie, Kayla, Roberts, and Chell showed up, too. Chelsea let go and looked around overwhelmed in happiness.

Sylvie was dressed in long black pants, boots, a white shirt, a black jacket tied around her waist and a black bandana on her over her long blond hair. Kayla was wearing modified blue jean shorts with a yellow striped shirt and a black backpack. Roberts was a tall white man with silver hair and a beard wearing a green sweater over a grey collared shirt with jeans and brown shoes. Chell was wearing a purple long-sleeved shirt with jeans and black and white tennis shoes. She was now 42 years old.

"Almost all of you are in here," Chelsea said in happiness. "I can't believe it."

"Well, duh, Chelsea," Kayla said as she hovered around her. "You know we wouldn't leave you alone after facing down Miss Psychopathic Robot by yourself. Don't you? Speaking of which, you were awesome out there! I wish I could have seen it in person."

"Dad, is Brandon okay?" Chelsea asked suddenly remembering. "Where is he?"

"He got away after you pulled your distraction, but he is wandering around in the facility," Zaki said. "I have been able to contact him, and we're trying to get reunited so that we can all escape."

"That's good to know. I broke her monitor and she was pissed, but I fell asleep before I could see the end result. My work was fruitful after all."

"You have made _me_ proud, sweetheart," Chell said.

"Oh, Mom," Chelsea said with tears welling up as she ran into her mother's arms.

Chell wrapped her arms around Chelsea as everyone watched on in loving concern knowing how scared she was feeling. They all wished they could do more to pull her out of the situation at that moment than just offering their support in a dream.

"Mama, I'm so glad to see you," Chelsea said.

"I'm happy to see you, too," Chell said happily. "I just wish I could hug you in real life."

"Mom, you must be so upset right now. This is all my fault! You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't have to face her again. You shouldn't have to deal with all these old memories."

"I'm not angry at you, Chelsea. You didn't know where you were. I'm angry at her. You should not have to endure her torments like I did or face her like I did. You don't need to worry though. We are not going to let her hurt you anymore. I will not let her impregnate you or make you live a test subject's life like I did. Just keep the faith and we will find a way to get you out."

A moment of silence passed as Chelsea hesitated over what she wanted to say next. Finally however, she spoke up.

"Mom, we have to get out of here," Chelsea said. "I know that's the priority, but I also want to kill her."

Chell let go of her daughter and looked her in the eye as almost everyone else was shocked in silence.

"Chelsea, are you really serious?" Sylvie asked.

"Do you know what you are asking?" Chell asked. "You know how I tried to do the same thing and failed…twice?"

"Mom, it says in the Bible that killing evil people is sometimes necessary in order to stop them right?" Chelsea continued. "I know you don't want to face her, but I know that unless we stop her she will just keep finding more victims to torture. It will go on until Judgement Day unless we do something. I don't want her to be able to hurt anyone else. You were alone and couldn't do it before, but now you have friends who have the powers to do something special. Come on, Mom. We are in a position to do good. We can't just pass it up and hide."

"I think she's right," Pastor Roberts said suddenly with a determined look in his eyes. "We have been just protecting ourselves for a long time, but we have something special and I think it's time we used it to protect other people."

"What are you talking about, George?" Zaki asked. "We have done nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with running away. That is what saved us from the Combines."

"Saved us for what? So we can hide for our entire lives? We actually have the power to do something, but we are hiding. Why? Because we're scared? I'm tired of running from big things just because they're dangerous. It's time we stood up. I know that if we work together we can do something great here. Just think about the 100 people who are still alive. We may not know them, but they are our family too, Zaki. I am not going to leave them with her."

"I want kill that monster as badly as you both do," Sylvie said. "However, we have to think about your safety, Chelsea. We have to think about the others who have not been freed yet, too. The robot could kill all of them if we make one bad move."

"I don't care if she hurts me," Chelsea said. "I just want her to be stopped. I agree with Pastor Roberts, Dad. God gave us these gifts for a reason. I know that it's dangerous, but we can't just run away from these people. I want to fight back!"

"Yeah, let's fight!" Kayla yelled excited. "I've been waiting to be a superhero my whole life. Now, it's my turn to kick some serious ass!"

"Kayla!" Pastor Roberts said in disapproval at her language.

"Everyone, shut up!" Chell yelled.

The whole room went silent and remained that way for a moment before Chell continued.

"I know what it's like to live in fear," Chell said sternly. "I know what it's like to be all alone and powerless and wonder if you are going to survive for another minute. No one deserves to live that way. That is why I agree with Chelsea."

"Chell…" Zaki said concerned.

"I do not want anyone else to have to suffer like I did. I was powerless to do anything against her. I knew I was a slave to her whims but I could do _nothing_ about it. That feeling of weakness has haunted me for a long time and will haunt all of us forever unless we do something. We have the power to stand up for the people she's oppressing and to stop her once and for all. I know we can do it. We have my experience, everyone's abilities, and God's presence with us. Besides, I think doing this is the key to being able to let go of my nightmares once and for all. It is only then that I will know that by the grace of God I will be free from her forever."

"I will stand behind you, Chell," Sylvie said in support of her spiritual sister. "I'm tired of being afraid and timid, too. I think I can potentially use my mind to shut down this entire facility. Even if I can't, I will help you however I can."

"Thank you, Sylvie," Chell said in response. "I know you can help a lot. You just need to have faith in yourself."

"You know what I'm down with," Kayla said excited. "Oh, yeah! I get to finally kick some butt!"

"As my granddaughter so eloquently put it, I am with you, too," Pastor Roberts said.

"I guess I'll concede," Zaki said in defeat. "However, this is really dangerous. We could all get killed."

"It would be no fun if it were easy," Chelsea replied facetiously.

Everyone in the group was enjoying their time together but unfortunately the group of survivors was about to be discovered. P-Body and Atlas were talking in the hall not far from the room where the group were all hiding when P-Body heard a noise that sounded like people talking quietly. He and Atlas walked closer to where the noise was coming from in order to find out what it was. P-Body pushed hard against the door and eventually forced it open to see the group of mutants sitting on the floor around Zaki with their eyes closed. Only Sylvie could hear the presence of the mechanical minds. In Chelsea's dream, Sylvie disappeared to see what was happening.

"Dad, where did she go?" Chelsea asked in fear.

"I don't know," Zaki replied.

Back in the room, Sylvie turned around, locked eyes with the two robots, and then quickly shut her eyes and concentrated so Zaki could pull her back into the dream.

As quick as a flash, Sylvie reappeared again.

"We have to run!" Sylvie yelled. "We have been discovered! There are two robots in the room with us!"

"No!" Chelsea screamed. "Please don't leave me alone! I can fight with you!"

Everyone disappeared except for Chelsea's Dad. He ran up to her and gave her a quick hug.

Zaki then quickly said as Chelsea wrapped her arms around him and he rubbed the back of her head, "You're too drugged to wake up from this distance, Chelsea. I'm sorry. I'll try to do it if we get closer to you, but in the meantime, please don't worry about anything. It will be alright. God will help us and you, and no matter what happens remember this: he is our shepherd. We love you, Chelsea, and we will see each other again soon."

Zaki then disappeared and Chelsea was alone again knowing that there was nothing she could do to help some of the people she loved the most. All she could really do was pray.

"God, why is this happening?" Chelsea screamed in frustration. "Why are you letting this happen? I don't want to be asleep and alone again. All I want to do is wake up and help them!"

Chelsea then gave out a deep sigh and said, "But since I can't do that, watch over them, please!"

Chelsea sat down on the ground again as everything began to fade to black again, but as she slipped back again to unconsciousness, she started reciting the Bible verse her father had referenced, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want…"

Meanwhile, Sylvie and the others found themselves face to face with the robots. They picked up their backpacks and prepared to bolt.

"Excellent work," GLaDOS said. "You have found all the others, and Chell is with them. You have no idea what a relief this is. I have been looking for all of you for weeks."

"Scatter!" Kayla yelled in fear.

Kayla used her telekinesis to break open a vent and flew into it. Pastor Roberts quickly activated the electricity in his hands and electrocuted the two robots into submission.

"Kayla, come out!" Pastor Roberts yelled into the vent as the two robots collapsed onto the floor. "It's safe now. Just come out."

Unfortunately however, she had already flown too far to hear him. Roberts knew he couldn't go after her or else she would get electrocuted because of the metal in the vent. They had to run without her.

Pastor Roberts sighed and said, "Zaki, please contact my granddaughter and tell her where we're going so she can meet us in the future."

"Will do," Zaki said.

Pastor Roberts then led the way out of the room, Chell ran after him, Zaki ran out after her, and Sylvie left the room last, but before she left, Sylvie heard P-Body say something that made her pause. Not surprisingly, she could understand what the robots were saying since she could read their minds.

"You're sorry? You didn't mean for this to happen?" Sylvie asked looking at him in surprise.

P-Body gave an affirmative beep and muttered something else weakly.

"I can understand you because I'm a technological telepath," Sylvie replied. "I can connect to technology telepathically so I guess I can connect to you, too."

P-Body then asked her another question.

"Yes, I'm the one who is good with machines. How did you know that?"

P-Body replied.

"Chelsea told you? What do you know about Chelsea? Where is she?"

P-Body replied.

"She's with GLaDOS, but you want to help her? You two are making a plan? That's good. What were you planning on doing?"

P-Body replied.

"You don't know and you want my help so you can leave, too? Well, I'm sorry, but we do not have time to help you right now. I think we can handle it ourselves, so don't worry. I'll come back to fix you once GLaDOS is shut down."

With that, Sylvie took off. P-Body tried to yell for her to come back, but she wouldn't listen. In the meantime, Sylvie got back in contact with her friends. They had found GLaDOS's room and were about to go inside of it. Kayla was fine. She was in the air vents and could see GLaDOS from where she was hiding.

_"I'm sorry, Zaki,"_ Sylvie told Zaki telepathically. _"I was sidetracked because the robots were trying to talk to me. Just go on without me. I will catch up in a minute." _

"Chell, is that you?" a familiar mechanical voice asked before Zaki could ask any more questions.

Chell entered first with her arms crossed, but characteristically, she did not say a word. She did not let the robot have the satisfaction of an answer before and refused to give her that satisfaction now. Zaki entered behind her followed by Pastor Roberts. Chell began to feel all her old feelings of anger in her heart against the android rise inside her once again.

Kayla watched the scene tensely from behind the grating of the air vent she was hiding in. A thought occurred to her and she quickly went rummaging through her backpack with her telekinesis as she did with everything else arms and legs were needed for until she pulled out an old iPhone.

_"This is the event of the century and Chelsea would kill me if I didn't take pictures,"_ Kayla thought to herself.

Chelsea was the main photographer of the family. She absolutely loved taking pictures and constantly worked on it to get better. Her love of photography was one of the reasons why she collected _National Geographic _magazines. She wanted to travel the world and write about her experiences just like they did. Chelsea taught Kayla everything she knew about photography, and though Kayla wasn't as good, she still did a good job.

Kayla put the iPhone on silent and got a quick shot of GLaDOS through the vent grating. She was pleased by the result.

_"This looks awesome,"_ Kayla thought to herself. _"Chelsea will be pleased."_

Kayla was then startled by the sound of slamming doors. GLaDOS had locked them in.

Sylvie arrived a bit too late, and though she tried to use her power to manipulate GLaDOS, she couldn't get her to open the doors. All she could do was press her head against the door and listen.

"It's been a long time, Chell," GLaDOS said after their long moment of silence.

Chell still stood there silent and unflinching and angry.

"I haven't seen you in twenty years, and you still refuse to say a word to me?" GLaDOS asked in bemusement.

Chell stared her down in an angry silence.

GLaDOS then said, "I must congratulate you on staying alive for as long as you have. My new test subject told me that the world has become a hard place to live in so that is really quite impressive. I didn't expect you to last this long honestly. I expected you to die from any number of things. But you beat the odds and survived, so congratulations! You have managed to stay alive, find a mate, and reproduce, just like every other creature in the world. Don't you feel accomplished?"

No one said anything so GLaDOS kept talking.

"I'm not complaining however. I actually like the creature you reproduced. I call her a creature because she is not actually a human in the way that humans have been defined in the past. She is a new breed of human as most of your family is, and I intend to study her along with any other specimens I can find. My methods may be grotesque by my own standards, but for the sake of science, it is the only way to go. You should be proud of this contribution you have made to science, Chell. I just wish that you didn't feel the need to get in the way of it. Don't you care about all the science your daughter is contributing to? I know you care about her, but a mother must let go of her child sometime. Why are you having so much trouble? Tell me. Do you just feel guilty for her predicament? The radiation of the hard light bridges did soak into your genes and gave your daughter her powers. You had to pass on your genes. If she wasn't so special, I would have just ignored her. It could be said that this really is all your fault, or if you want to be more specific since you are religious now, God's fault."

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Zaki said turning red in the face with anger as he talked to the robot who hurt his wife. "That's enough. You do _not_ talk to my wife that way, you evil, psychotic monster!"

"So, _you're _her husband and the father?" GLaDOS asked while looking him over. "The telepath?"

"Damn straight," Zaki said as he wrapped Chell in his arms and kissed her in front of GLaDOS.

"Disgusting," GLaDOS replied. "It's no wonder you two got together. You must have been desperate. It's hard to believe that that girl was reproduced by you two. She is better looking than either of you. How she ended up looking as good as she does is truly an act of God."

"Where is our daughter?" Zaki demanded as he let Chell go and stepped in front of her. "What have you done with her?"

"You should be proud, Chell. She is much more destructive than you ever were. Even in her weak state, she has already managed to destroy all the cameras in the hall, one of my robots, my claw, and one of my monitors. She may have been able to escape earlier if she wasn't so physically weak from all the invasive examinations. She is quite resourceful and strong. She may prove to be an even better test subject than you were. I'm excited to see it. That should make you happy. Regardless of all your numerous failings as a human being, you finally did something right when you reproduced and raised your daughter. You groomed an almost perfect test subject."

"Where is our daughter?" Zaki continued to ask ignoring her taunts.

"The only thing imperfect about her is how convicted, talkative, and outspoken she is, especially when it comes to defending you. It's quite strange. According to research, teenagers usually hate their parents, but she almost seems to worship you like she does God, Chell. Perhaps you have done something very wrong after all."

"WHERE IS OUR DAUGHTER?!" Zaki yelled in impatience.

"She's right over there," GLaDOS said as she gestured to the corner where she had moved Chelsea.

Chell and Zaki started running to her, but GLaDOS quickly moved her claw in front of them.

"You think that I am just going to let you walk out with her?" she said incredulously. "Like I said, she is an almost perfect test subject and on top of that a new breed of human accidentally created by the facility. It would be foolish to let her go. Besides that, she is not feeling too well. How will you take care of her if the world is so desolate? Aperture Science is the only place around with the right medical equipment. Without it, she might die."

"We have our ways," Zaki said with a grin as he winked at Pastor Roberts. "She will be fine."

Since her back was turned, Pastor Roberts took the opportunity to strike. He turned on his electric powers, flew up to GLaDOS, and electrocuted her. After shaking from the shock, GLaDOS screamed and collapsed. Zaki and Chell then ran to their daughter, lifted her up, and hugged her in their arms.

Kayla smiled wide in happiness from where she was in the vent.

"Good job, Grandpa!" Kayla yelled from where she was.

"Kayla, where are you?" Pastor Roberts asked.

"I'm in the vent," Kayla said.

"Come on out. We will need you to get out of here."

"You got it!"

"She feels so skinny," Chell said as she continued to embrace her daughter while Zaki quickly removed the oxygen mask and all her IV's and monitor wires. "She has already been through hell, poor baby."

"Apparently, she was kept in an unconscious state for most of it, so thankfully, she has not experienced too much of it during the past three weeks," Zaki said reading his daughter's mind as he pulled her left arm over his shoulder in order to support her.

"Zaki, could you try waking her up?" Chell asked as she did the same thing with her right arm and looked at her husband. "You can overpower the effects of the drugs. Can't you?"

"I've never tried it before, but I can see if I can drag her consciousness out of the drugs," Zaki said. "But in the meantime, we need to get out of here. We can find the others soon enough, but we have to make sure that Chelsea is okay."

Chell nodded her head in agreement. Chell looked up, saw where the door was, and together with Zaki started carrying Chelsea toward it.

"Sylvie, see if you can open the door and break down GLaDOS permanently," Zaki said aloud in a telepathic message to Sylvie.

Meanwhile, Kayla began using her telekinesis to break open the grating by bending it backwards. Pastor Roberts, in the meantime, was waiting at the door for his granddaughter to emerge.

"Hurry up, Kayla," he yelled.

"These bolts are tight, grandpa," Kayla said in frustration. "Just give me a moment."

However about ten seconds later, Chell and Zaki felt Chelsea's body being snatched away. It was GLaDOS, who though damaged from the electricity, had managed to wake up and act before anyone else had the time to react. She dropped Chelsea on the bed once again, pulled an oxygen mask over her face, and wheeled her to the side quickly. Pastor Roberts tried to electrocute her again, but GLaDOS hit him in the head with her claw knocking him out before he could. She then pushed Chell, Zaki, and Pastor Roberts into the elevator that she had called down with her claw.

Chell was astonished, but she didn't say a word.

Sylvie was listening helpless on the other side in frustration. Every effort to hack into GLaDOS's mind had been a complete failure. She did not understand why she couldn't control GLaDOS if GLaDOS was a machine.

Kayla quickly straightened up the vent and called out to Zaki telepathically. She was frozen with fear and remained quiet as possible because she did not know whether or not GLaDOS even knew that she was there.

Meanwhile, GLaDOS moved in closer to the lift and said, "It seems that destiny is driving us together, Chell. The only way to get rid of you seems to be to kill you. I didn't want to have to try it, but it seems I have no choice. I can't have you interfere with my experiment. Neurotoxins online."

With that, she started powering up the neurotoxins.

"No," Zaki yelled as he looked right into GLaDOS's eye. "You can't do this!"

"I can't do this," GLaDOS replied as if hypnotized.

"You can't kill us."

"You're right. I don't have to kill you," GLaDOS said as she powered down the neurotoxin emitters.

"I just want you gone."

With that, GLaDOS began moving the lift up.

"Of course," Sylvie said out loud in realization. "She used to be human. That is why my powers don't work on her, but Zaki's do. He just hypnotized her. He needs to know that."

Zaki had the ability to unintentionally hypnotize people sometimes when he was trying to convince them of something, and that is exactly what had happened then.

Sylvie tried calling to Zaki telepathically to let him know about it, but he just wasn't listening. He was too busy focusing on what he was doing. Zaki was still trying to pull Chelsea's consciousness out of the heavy sedative medication she was under so that she could possibly escape.

"Goodbye, Chell," GLaDOS said as she watched Chell stare after her child as the lift went higher and higher. "You don't have to worry. I will take great care of her _and_ her children."

The lift then went up very quickly once GLaDOS and Chelsea were out of sight. The lift went all the way to the top, and the doors to the lift and the door to the outside opened. Chell and Zaki dragged Pastor Roberts to the outside, so that he could get some air. Once he was lying face up on the ground, Chell then tried to run back, but she was already locked out. She repeatedly banged on the door. Zaki ran behind her and pulled her back.

"Stop it, Chell!" Zaki yelled. "There's no way you can enter that way now! Chell!"

Zaki then froze. He was still connected to Chelsea's mind telepathically and could hear Chelsea's thoughts in the chamber beneath them.

"Chell," Zaki said. "Chelsea is awake."

Chell quickly calmed down and placed her hand on her husband's head so that she could also see what was happening to their daughter.

In the chamber below, Chelsea opened her eyes and groggily looked around. Her father had managed to pull her consciousness out from the effects of the drugs, so now, she was tired but awake as rolled on right side under the blankets that GLaDOS had placed on top of her.

_"Chelsea?"_ Zaki heard her father say to her. _"Chelsea, can you hear me?"_

_"Dad?"_ Chelsea responded. _"How am I…?"_

_"I woke you up. Listen, there is no time to explain, but you have to get out of there. We can't help you because GLaDOS sent us outside, but Kayla is in the vent. Go to her and she will let you in. Do it now! We already pulled the IV's and monitor wires out. All you have to do is take off the mask while GLaDOS is not looking." _

GLaDOS had turned away to call the doctor robots in to replace Chelsea's equipment, so she wasn't watching Chelsea at the moment.

Chelsea took the opportunity to sit up, take off her oxygen mask, pull the covers off, step off her bed onto a disc that she created under her feet, and quickly fly up above GLaDOS to the area where the ventilation was and Kayla was hiding.

Kayla had just been informed of what was happening so she looked at Chelsea as she flew up to her with a big smile that was returned by Chelsea.

"I am so glad to see you," Kayla whispered. "I have missed you so much."

"I am glad to see you too, Kay," Chelsea whispered. "Can you open the grating and let me in so that I can give you a hug?"

"I can try but this grating is harder to open than freaking Fort Knox," Kayla whispered as she tried quietly pulling the grating outwards. "I swear. The people who built these damn screws designed them to go on a submarine."

"Maybe I could try," Chelsea suggested as she pulled out a disc on her left arm. "I can cut it open."

"No, Chelsea, whenever you saw through metal it sounds like a chainsaw. You need to get out of sight and let me handle this."

"Then why don't you just unscrew the screws?"

"Oh, that _would _make things much easier."

Chelsea rolled her eyes in false scorn and said, "You need to use your brain, kid."

"Shut up," Kayla whispered as she continued her efforts. "By the way, I like your bracelets."

"They're not bracelets. They're straps that they tried to use to restrain me. I like them, too."

"You want to make them into bracelets or something?"

"I have thought about it, but you can have one and make into a choker," Chelsea said as she pulled off the strap on her right hand and handed it to Kayla. "We'll be matching."

"I suppose I could spray paint it or something to make it look more badass," Kayla said as she telekinetically grabbed it, pulled it between the lines of the grating, opened a pocket of her backpack, dropped it in there, and zipped it up all while continuing her work. "Thanks!"

However their happy reunion was suddenly interrupted when GLaDOS turned around after finishing her call and noticed that Chelsea was not there. After not moving out of shock for a second, she proceeded to look around the room for Chelsea.

"Where did you go, test subject?" GLaDOS asked as she rolled the bed around to make sure Chelsea wasn't hiding under it and then proceeded to look around the area where the bed was to make sure she hadn't somehow cut open one of the panels. "Are you playing hide and seek? I'm really good at this game. I used to play it all the time with the scientists when I took over the facility. However, I almost always won, so you playing this game against me is pointless. I am the hide and seek champion."

Kayla saw Chelsea's eyes go wide in terror, which was an expression that she had never seen on Chelsea's face. It put her on edge to see her big sister in that state.

"Hide, Chelsea," Kayla whispered. "I'll get you out of here."

Chelsea nodded and quickly went behind the ventilation. There she sat down and pulled her knees to her chest so that her body would be completely hidden by the vent. As Chelsea wrapped her arms around her legs, she tried to pull herself together so that she could be strong for Kayla.

In the meantime, Kayla furiously worked to undo all the screws on the vent at once. It was a hard effort since the bolts were screwed in tight, but Kayla worked as hard as she could.

GLaDOS continued to look around the room in frustration seeing no sign of her test subject anywhere. It was unbelievable that her test subject was able to wake up considering the fact that she was highly sedated. With further thought, GLaDOS figured that the telepath had something to do with it, and it was foolish of her to let him get close to the patient in the first place.

Finally, GLaDOS looked up at the vents she had brought in to cool the subject down. Then it struck her that that is where the subject could have gone.

Kayla flew down the vent as GLaDOS moved in closer in order to hide, and upon closer expression, GLaDOS noticed that the screws of the grating had been loosened but not completely screwed off. The whole time Chelsea was shaking in her as she saw her figure move closer.

A smile showed in GLaDOS's voice as she thought she had it all figured it out.

"I know what you're planning, test subject," GLaDOS said happily. "You've been trying to open the vents in order to escape. I'm impressed that you have managed to loosen four screws already, but I'm not going to let you continue your efforts. You're still weak from your operations and do not have the energy to go on for too long unless you're treated, and if you die, there is no science and that is something I cannot allow. I will however allow you to make a choice. If I do not find you in the next ten seconds, I will turn on the neurotoxin. You might survive if you come back for your oxygen mask, but the rest of your holy family will die. However if you do come back, I will not turn on the neurotoxin. How does that sound?"

Kayla moved back to the grating and froze in panic as GLaDOS looked around the room some more. Chelsea was afraid but knew that she had to act now to save her family in Christ before it was too late. God gave her courage in her heart as she flew on top of the vent.

"I will start the countdown now," GLaDOS said. "10…9…8…"

"Kayla, get out of here," Chelsea whispered. "I'm going to stop this."

"7…6…5…"

"Chelsea, don't…" Kayla whispered pleadingly.

But Chelsea flew towards GLaDOS with two large discs on her arms without responding. Chelsea dove towards her head that she could cut it off while GLaDOS wasn't looking.

_"Chelsea, don't do this!"_ Chell yelled through Zaki's mind.

_"I have to do this, Mom,"_ Chelsea said soberly_. "I have to protect my little sister and everyone else. Please don't hold it against her. I'll be fine."_

"4…3…2…"

Chelsea was almost on top of GLaDOS when she accidentally coughed and gave away her position.

GLaDOS looked at her and had a smile in her voice as she said, "There, you are!"

Then before Chelsea could respond, GLaDOS grabbed her by the hands and held them above her head causing Chelsea to lose concentration and allow her discs to dissolve. GLaDOS then gently held her up against the wall where she couldn't stand.

"What were you thinking?" GLaDOS asked Chelsea as if she were a small child. "Don't you know how sick you are?"

"Do you think I care?!" Chelsea yelled back. "I want to get out of here! I also want to know what you have done to my parents and my pastor."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I know they were here."

"You have been dreaming, patient. Nobody has been here but me."

"Don't lie to me!" Chelsea yelled as she created discs in her hand and used them to cut through the restraints.

Part of the claw collapsed to the ground and GLaDOS was forced to retract the claw as Chelsea landed on a disc that she quickly put under her feet with her hands. She then created discs and prepared to charge after GLaDOS again.

Unfortunately, that was when GLaDOS struck back. She used her damaged claw to go for Chelsea's throat and another claw to go around Chelsea's waist. Within a few seconds, Chelsea was more forcefully pinned to the wall with a damaged claw around her throat and a claw around her waist as all but her disc on the bottom of her feet was dissolved. The damaged claw constricted Chelsea's throat as she used her hands to try to force it open since cutting it off would provoke GLaDOS to use electrocution again and focused as much as she could on keeping the disc under her feet so GLaDOS couldn't suffocate her even more. She was right where GLaDOS wanted her.

GLaDOS looked at her and in a more threatening tone said, "I am getting really tired of your antics. You are going to stop squirming and go to bed like an adult right now or you will not be the only one having trouble breathing."

GLaDOS moved her head and let Chelsea see the neurotoxin countdown screen that she had pulled back.

With tears in her eyes, she looked past GLaDOS towards Kayla who was tearing up in the vent and said through a squeezed trachea, "Okay, I'll go to bed. Just don't turn on the neurotoxin please."

"Good," GLaDOS said as she let go of her throat and pulled the screen away. "I won't."

Chelsea coughed painfully as she slowly regained the ability to breathe normally. Her chest for some reason was also in a great amount of pain which made breathing all the more difficult.

GLaDOS moved in closer as Chelsea dissolved the disc around her feet and allowed herself to be carried to her bed.

"Oh, dear," GLaDOS said in observation. "I seem to have left purple bruises around your neck. Oh, well! It's nothing you won't recover from, as long as you don't keep making me angry of course."

She dropped Chelsea on the bed as she continued coughing and said, "Put on the oxygen mask. It should help. The doctor robots should be here soon to hook you up again so you can continue dreaming about your family."

Chelsea pulled her covers over her body and laid down in the bed. She regained her ability to breathe slowly and tried to relax. She felt her neck and sure enough there were bruises. As she felt them, she shivered briefly in fear. If GLaDOS didn't need her, she would have killed her then and there. However, Chelsea stopped shivering because she knew Kayla was watching and had to be brave for her.

Kayla in the meantime sat there in front of the vent frozen with fear and guilt.

"It's my fault, God," Kayla prayed in her mind as she continued to tear up. "I was supposed to protect her and be a strong badass, but I failed her when I _could_ do something and now I can't do anything but watch Chelsea be used like a lab rat because of GLaDOS's stupid neurotoxin! I should have helped her. I am so freaking worthless."

Kayla then closed her eyes and continued to tear up.

"Are you comfortable?" GLaDOS said.

When Chelsea didn't respond, she continued, "I suggest that you enjoy this while it lasts. Soon, you will wish that I would let you rest. I will be honest now. I'm going to make your tests very hard. I have to after all you've shown that you can do so far as an invalid. Since you can almost manage to fight as just an invalid, I can only imagine what you'll do in full power once you're healthy again. Getting you to that point may be a lot of work on my part but seeing your test results will be completely worth it. It will be a great deal of fun, for one of us at least."

Chelsea glared at her as she heard panels open and the doctor robots came pouring in with sanitizers and fresh IV's.

Doctor robots began spraying the wires of the monitors with sanitizing fluids and connecting IV's filled with various substances into Chelsea's body. She could do nothing but watch them work as the sedatives that were mixed into the solutions of her IV's began to take effect.

"It took you long enough," GLaDOS said. "She has been an absolute pain, a scientifically informative pain, but a pain nonetheless. I want her asleep now. Are the immediately-effective sedatives ready yet?"

"No, ma'am," one of the doctor robots said as attached the monitors onto Chelsea's body and the others cleaned up the IV's that had been detached from her. "But they should be done tomorrow. However, we have managed to find chloroform. Do you want one of us to find some to use on her now?"

"No, I can deal with her being awake for a few minutes," GLaDOS said. "I know she will behave."

The doctor robot suddenly noticed the belt strap on Chelsea's left hand and said in surprise, "Did she break out of her restraints?"

"She did," GLaDOS said. "She can use her discs to break through them. I'm not sure what she did with the one on her right hand, though. What did you with it?"

"I threw it in the incinerator," Chelsea lied.

"Of course," GLaDOS said not believing her but not wanting to argue the point.

"I'll be sure to include that on the report," the doctor robot said as he pulled the strap off of her hand and then threw off the sheets to remove them off her feet.

"Hey!" Chelsea said weakly as he removed the straps from her feet. "I wanted those."

"You do not need them," GLaDOS said as she pulled the covers over Chelsea's body again. "They will just get in the way. Besides, I need to study the marks you left on them."

"I want them back! I don't care about your science!"

"And I don't care about your feelings," GLaDOS said coldly. "Now, you need to behave or else, I will turn on the neurotoxin."

Chelsea started to tear up in despair as she prayed to herself, "Watch over, Kayla, God. Please don't let her feel guilty. It wasn't her fault. Let her know that you are protecting me. Please help me remember that too…"

The doctor robots filed out of the room dragging the old IV's behind them as GLaDOS pulled Chelsea's bed out of the corner and closer to where she was with her claw.

GLaDOS moved in closer to look her over very quickly to be sure that nothing was unaccounted for as she did every single time that Chelsea's equipment was removed which for her had been the third time that day. She had considerably calmed down now that Chelsea was under control and was about to be put under again for a little while to give GLaDOS some peace of mind. The prospect of peace made GLaDOS feel happy and actually put her in the mood to do something "nice" for Chelsea.

GLaDOS pulled away and said, "How about I tell you a bedtime story while your sedatives put you to sleep?"

"You've got to be kidding," Chelsea said in annoyance. "What am I? A child?"

"For all intents and purposes, yes," GLaDOS said. "You're as helpless as one anyway. Anyways, here's the fable of the fox and the goat. It's an Aesop fable. Have you heard of it?"

"No," Chelsea said after rolling her eyes.

"Well, one day a fox was at a well straining his neck for a drink of water but while he was reaching down he lost his footing and fell into the well," GLaDOS said. "The fox could not get out and was afraid that he would drown in there, but fortunately, came up with a plan to get out. A goat passed by and asked what he was doing down there. The fox told her that he was going for a swim in the cold, refreshing water and asked if she wanted to join him. The goat joined of course but realized quickly that there was no way out. The fox however jumped onto her back and climbed out of the well. When the goat protested, the fox told her that she should have not been so foolish. He told her to, 'Think before you leap.' The fox then went on his merry way leaving the goat behind. The lesson from the fable of course is to think before you leap."

Chelsea understood what GLaDOS was trying to say to her and began to get angry in spite of her increasing drowsiness that made it hard to stay awake.

"In case, you don't understand what _that _proverb means," GLaDOS said as she moved in closer to the point where her face was almost touching Chelsea's. "I'll explain it to you. It means _to think before you act_ ever again or something bad might happen."

Chelsea reacted by pushing out hard light shields in front of GLaDOS's face pushing her backwards about three meters before the shields dissolved. Chelsea then flashed a smile of amusement across her face and fell asleep as GLaDOS stared down at her in annoyance and thought about how she should deal with her better.

Chell collapsed to her knees as her daughter drifted off to sleep and stared at the ground. She had a flashback to an event thirteen years earlier.

Chelsea and Chell were out at the apple orchard on a farm near the hotel. They were collecting apples for food. Chelsea was wearing a cute light blue long-sleeved dress and sandals, despite the fact it was early September and already getting cold. She was riding her discs up to the trees while holding a barrel on another disc. The two of them were having so much fun.

"Chelsea, don't throw the apples," Chell said. "You will turn all the apples into apple sauce."

"But Mommy, I love apple sauce. Eli does, too."

"Well, not everyone feels that way. You need to be careful to keep the apples whole."

"Alright," Chelsea said reluctantly.

Chell then climbed up on the ladder and started picking apples. She looked at an apple in her hands that was bright yellow, just like _her _eye. It was then that Chell had a panic attack. She thought she saw GLaDOS again for just a second and began to panic falling off the ladder. She started hyperventilating on the ground. Chelsea noticed right away.

"Mom?" she asked in great concern. "What's wrong? Did you have an awake nightmare again about the big, mean robot?"

Despite her age, Chell had already told her about GLaDOS in scary bedtime stories to explain why she had "awake nightmares" sometimes.

"Yes, Chelsea," Chell said. "I did. I saw her."

"You saw the robot? Oh, no! I'll call daddy."

Chelsea landed the discs and telepathically called Zaki. After she was done, she ran back over to her mother who was still sitting on the ground.

"I'm back, mommy," Chelsea said running to her Mom. "Daddy and Uncle Roscoe are coming over. It'll be okay."

Chell was still shaking so Chelsea went up to her and hugged her neck. Then she made a force field around the two of them.

"Mommy, you don't have to be scared," Chelsea said trying to comfort her mother. "I'll always protect you. God will, too. We are both going to make sure that that big, mean robot never gets close to you. She would have to get past this shield and I am never going to let that happen. Just please don't be scared, mommy. I'm here now."

Çhell scooped her daughter in her arms and hugged her tightly while giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"We will protect you too, sweetheart," Chell said.

She then hummed the "Cara Mia" song that the turrets sang for her.

As Chell relived that memory, tears came to her eyes and filled her heart with guilt. She was supposed to be there. She was supposed to protect her daughter, and she failed. All she could do was pray and ask why.

Chelsea was a gift from God for Chell. Chell had no idea how to be a good mother, especially to a little girl like Chelsea. She could not braid hair. She did not know how to dress children. Chell did not even know what was appropriate to talk about and when. To make matters worse, she often suffered horrible flashbacks from her childhood and subsequent life under GLaDOS, which forced Chelsea to be more mature than she should have had to be. Chell was not always the best at parenting, but Chelsea never cared. It was not like she was a perfect kid. Chelsea could be overly energetic and hard-headed like any other kid, especially because of her ADHD, but Chell loved Chelsea and Chelsea always loved her. She always listened to whatever she had to say. She was always there to talk to. She was always there to comfort her when the nightmares came.

It was Chelsea who really taught Chell how to love people in practice. Zaki and Roscoe taught her how to open her heart to love. Chelsea was the person who taught her how to carry it out. Zaki and the others in the congregation taught her how to love. Chelsea applied it to loving her mother. To love people like Christ, Chell copied everything Chelsea did, starting with her friend Sylvie and then carrying on to everyone after that. Chelsea was a great teacher, although of course she had no idea she was doing it at the time. It could truly be said that children teach their parents more than parents teach them.

Chell felt that she owed her daughter everything, and that monster had taken her away. Chell had suffered for years under and away from GLaDOS. She knew that Chelsea hated GLaDOS and was fighting to kill her partially to avenge her mother. She was scared for the others, too. They were all her family members who had made their way into her heart and now they were all in danger, too. All the family she had could be killed, and Chell felt like she could almost do nothing to stop it. All these thoughts were running through Chell's mind as her husband got on the ground next to her.

"Why is this happening, Zaki?" Chell asked in near despair. "I thought I was free from this hell forever. I thought that I could finally forget and move on. I was so stupid. I can never let go of this part of my life no matter how hard I try. It's like I'm cursed."

"That's not true," Zaki said trying to comfort her knowing all her thoughts.

"Is it? You remember what GLaDOS said. It's my blood that carried the radiation. It's that radiation that has given Chelsea her gift. That gift is the reason that GLaDOS is paying any attention to her! Now, she's going to test her, rape her, and force her to give birth to test subjects! To make matters worse, everyone else I love is going to go down with her and there's nothing I can do to save any of them! Why is God letting this happen? It's like me and everyone I love is forever to be cursed by this nightmare, by her. GLaDOS killed my step-father, she kept me locked me up for years and forced me to go through the tests, and now she has doomed my daughter and all my dearest friends to a life of hell. That monster is a curse! I can never run away from her. I thought my life was finally good, and then God drags me back to this place. Why, Zaki?! Why?!"

"I am not sure, but I know that you're right about one thing," Zaki said starting to have a realization himself. "GLaDOS is a curse."

Chell looked straight at him.

"She has caused pain to thousands upon thousands of people," he continued. "She has caused pain for nothing but her sick version of science and unless we stop her, she will continue the curse forever. It does not just affect you. All evil is a curse, Chell. It affects everyone. This monster is no different, and like all evil, she can be fought. Don't think that I don't care. I feel the pain, too. We all do. Chell, you are not alone anymore. You never were. God was with you then, and He is with us now. I am with you, too, so is everyone who came with us. Any curse that affects you affects us too now. That is what it means to be a family in Christ. That is also what it means to be a friend and a husband. I swear that as long as I live I will be standing here fighting with you, and I know the others feel the same way. Maybe God allowed this to happen because he wanted the world to be free from her forever like you said before. I think he wants us to do it, and I will be damned before I let GLaDOS win. We are not going to let GLaDOS hurt our baby. We are going to find another way in, we are going to free everyone, and we are going to kill her to stop her from hurting anyone else. We can do this. Just please trust me and rely on me, too. You don't have to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders anymore."

Chell looked at him and hugged him smiling through her tears. They sat like that for a minute before they heard a moan behind them then. They turned around just in time to see Pastor Roberts come to.

"What happened?" Roberts asked rubbing his head. "Where's Kayla? Where's Chelsea?"

"It's a long story, but the gist of it is that GLaDOS kicked us out," Chell said as they both stood up and walked over to him. "She knocked you out, shoved us in the elevator, and forced us out. Chelsea then woke up and tried to escape with Kayla, but since GLaDOS threatened to use neurotoxin, she tried to kill GLaDOS and got caught. She is now asleep and Kayla is still in the vent. GLaDOS doesn't know she's there."

"Can we get back in?" Roberts asked as he got up.

"No," Zaki said. "We have to find another way in."

"What about Kayla? How is she? Is she hurt?"

"Hold on. I will contact her," Zaki said as he focused. "Do you two want to hear?"

They both nodded their heads in affirmation as Zaki connected their minds to the call, too.

_"Kayla, are you alright?" _Zaki asked.

_"I'm fine, Uncle Zaki. Is grandpa okay? I saw the monster hit him,"_ Kayla said in concern.

_"He's fine, Kayla. We have been locked out and we need to find another way in. As for you, I know this might be tough, but we need you to keep yourself alive and try to find the others. We will be there soon."_

_"Zaki, Chell, Grandpa, I am so sorry,"_ Kayla said after a moment of silence as she started to tear up. _"It's all my fault. Chelsea could have escaped with me, but I was too slow. She only fought GLaDOS and let herself get caught so she could protect me. It's all my fault. I was scared and slow. I'm so sorry."_

_"Kayla, it's alright,"_ Zaki said firmly. _"You did what you could, but you cracked under pressure. That happens to everyone, but right now, you have to trust God, you have to have confidence, and you have to keep going…" _

_"Let me talk to her,"_ Pastor Roberts said in interruption. _"Kayla, I need to know that you will be alright."_

_"Grandpa," _Kayla said confidently to alleviate his fears. _"You know me. I am eternally strong. I'll be fine, but there is something I need to tell you."_

_"Say anything you like,"_ Pastor Roberts said as comfortingly as he could.

_"Grandpa, I'm sorry that I ran away, too,"_ she thought with her voice downcast. _"I was scared and stupid. I shouldn't have done it. Can all of you ever forgive me?" _

_"Yes, Kayla, we can,"_ Pastor Roberts said lovingly but sternly. _"However for now on, I need you to be level-headed. God will be with you, but you need to have self-control and you will need to be stronger than your fears. You are going to be by yourself from now until we can find another way in. You will need to watch out for yourself and find ways to keep yourself and possibly the others alive. That means you will have to be very strong. It's a mature request, but I know you can do that. Can you do it for me, Kayla?"_

_"Yes, grandpa,"_ Kayla replied seriously. _"You know I can. I love you."_

_"I love you, too,"_ her grandfather said.

_"Let me say a few words to her, too,"_ Chell said. _"Hi, sweetie!"_

_"Aunt C, are you alright?"_ Kayla said. _"You must be so upset and so mad at me."_

_"Don't worry. I'm not angry with you, but listen. As someone who has fought GLaDOS, let me give you some advice. You need to run and hide from her as much as possible, but if you have to fight her, there is something you need to be aware of. GLaDOS has a powerful bite. Don't underestimate that, but her bark is even worse. GLaDOS is primarily a psychological enemy. When you fight her, she is going to do everything in her power to tear you down on the inside. She will insult you and she will do her best to upset you. Nothing is off limits to her. She will say the worst things you can imagine. You cannot let her get inside your head."_

_"Alright, I get it. You know me. I'm confident."_

_"No, you don't. I have fought her myself, Kayla. I know for a fact how cruel she is. As a woman, she fights with words. I know that because of how you look she will consider you an easy target and because of the age you're at now, you are more sensitive to what she might say. Ignore her and remember everything the good book says about how special God has made you. GLaDOS will try to manipulate your emotions and your actions. You cannot let her do that. Understood?"_

_"Yes."_

_"One more thing, do not doubt your powers either. Your telekinesis is incredible. If you face her, do not hesitate to go all out against her. You will need to in order to survive. Don't worry about killing her in self-defense. No one will be jealous if you deal the final blow. Your power is great, Kayla. You will be able to fight her off when the time comes. Don't doubt that."_

_"Thanks, Aunt C! I love you. I'll watch Chelsea for as long as possible."_

_"Good, I love you too, Kayla. Stay strong."_

The communication went silent and Kayla turned to watch GLaDOS from where she was hiding determined not to let her friend down again while Sylvie was still trying to get her message through to Zaki.

_"ZAKI!"_ Sylvie screamed telepathically.

_"Ouch,"_ Zaki said reeling from the volume of her mental voice. _"What is it, Sylvie? Do you know what all has been happening?"_

_"Yes, I heard most of it from outside the door. You can fill me in on the rest later, but I have to tell you something. You can control GLaDOS."_

_"What?"_

_"She stopped trying to kill you when you told her to because you had hypnotized her. I can't control her because she is not fully machine. You can reach her because she has a human consciousness. If we want to stop her, you need to do it again."_

_"That's incredible! Thanks for the information, Sylvie! Now please keep yourself alive and figure out the layout of the place until we can get to you. I will fill you in while we walk."_

_"Alright,"_ Sylvie said not mentioning the two robots because she did not know whether they could rely on them or not.

_"What did Sylvie say, Zaki?"_ Chell asked.

_"We'll have to have a three way call on the way,"_ Zaki replied. _"Right now though, we have to look for an alternate entrance."_

_"Okay,"_ Chell said.

With that, the trio departed to find an alternate entrance. Pastor Roberts turned on his electricity and flew ahead with Zaki and Chell following quickly behind him.

Meanwhile, Sylvie leaned against the door and talked to Chell and Zaki for about a minute to find out what had happened to while hesitatingly making her next move. She walked tentatively back to the room where they contacted Chelsea.

Sylvie found the robots still lying there half-dead on the floor. Atlas clicked to alert P-Body to Sylvie's presence. Sylvie stared down at them silently for a few moments while finishing her call and then stared at them for a few seconds more before finally finding the courage to speak up.

"So, you want to help us, right?" Sylvie asked cautiously.

They both gave affirmative beeps.

"You are not trying to trick us?"

They both gave negative beeps. Sylvie could read their minds and knew that they were telling the truth, so she knew this risk was worth taking. Sylvie put her hands on the robots as her powers reassembled the robots so that they were in the condition they were before. They both looked at each other in amazement and then looked at her.

"I am a technological telepath," Sylvie said. "I can read the minds of machines and make them do whatever I want. Anyways, where do we need to go?"

P-Body made a gesture for her to follow them, but Sylvie immediately caught on to something.

"Wait a second," she said.

Sylvie put her hands on them and telepathically turned off the device that GLaDOS used to track them.

P-Body made some beeping noises in curiosity.

"I turned off the tracking devices that GLaDOS put inside you. Now, she won't be able to see what you see or hear what you hear."

P-Body hugged her in response and beeped some more.

"You didn't know how to do it yourself?" Sylvie asked in surprise. "I guess that no human can fix everything wrong with their body either. Anyways, where are we going?"

P-Body and Atlas led her to a break room with an old sofa and matching blue office chairs in the middle surrounding a coffee table covered with old magazines, an old television hooked up on the corner of the room, an old food synthesizer next to a sink with cabinets and a broken down coffee machine, an attached bathroom next to a water fountain, a couple of empty snack machines and soda machines, and a big window with moonlight pouring through it.

Sylvie looked through the window and was happy to see a full moon after weeks of seeing nothing but the inside of the facility She sat down and bent her head to thank God for her new friends and asked him to give her success in what they were about to do. The robots sat down on the chairs as Sylvie looked at them in gratefulness. She pulled out her Bible from her backpack which she read in the moonlight and after about ten minutes, she put it away and continued to sit in the moonlight.

Sylvie began to reminisce about France. When she was very small, her parents would sing "Au Claire de la Lune" song to her as a lullaby to help her sleep. Sylvie did the same thing with Chelsea when she was a child.

Without realizing it, Sylvie began to sing the old French song, "Au Claire de la Lune."

"Au clair de la lune, Mon ami Pierrot, Prête-moi ta plume Pour écrire un mot. Ma chandelle est morte, Je n´ai plus de feu, Ouvre-moi ta porte, Pour l´amour de Dieu. Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit : Je n´ai pas de plume, Je suis dans mon lit. Va chez la voisine, Je crois qu´elle y est, Car dans sa cuisine  
On bat le briquet. Au clair de la lune L´aimable Lubin Frappe chez la brune, Elle répond soudain,  
Qui frappe de la sorte? Il dit à son tour : Ouvrez-moi la porte Pour l´amour de Dieu. »

P-Body and Atlas looked at each other a little bit confused. They did not recognize the song and did not realize that humans could sing like the turrets did.

Sylvie noticed them and realized what she had been doing. In embarrassment, she walked past them to the couch, sat down, used her backpack as a pillow, and used her jacket as blanket as she turned away from them.

She however continued to sing quietly as she fell asleep, "Au clair de la lune, On n´y voit qu´un peu : On chercha la plume, On chercha le feu. En cherchant d´la sorte Je n´sais c´qu´on trouva, Mais j´sais que la porte Sur eux se ferma. »

Sylvie then went silent, because she fell asleep.

Thankfully, GLaDOS was too busy thinking about what to do with Chelsea to notice what the robots were doing.

GLaDOS was slowly coming up with a plan on how she was going to make Chelsea behave and once she thought she had it figured out, she turned off the lights in the room so her subject could rest more easily.

Unfortunately for her however, that was when something odd happened. The turret with the red eye and the will of his own appeared in the chamber on top of Chelsea's bed.

Kayla noticed him before GLaDOS did and stared at him in bewilderment.

"Where did you come from?" Kayla asked quietly. "What is going on?"

When GLaDOS turned around, she was looking at him straight in the eye.

Then out of nowhere before GLaDOS had a chance to react, the turret began to sing, "The rusted chains of prison moons Are shattered by the sun. I walk a road, horizons change. The tournament's begun. The purple piper plays his tune, The choir softly sing; Three lullabies in an ancient tongue, For the court of the crimson king."

Then right after Kayla blinked, the turret disappeared. GLaDOS seemed to recognize him and simply turned away to do her business without giving him much thought.

Kayla however was bewildered. She had no idea what had just happened and was really confused. She thought she recognized the song that he was singing but had no idea what it could all mean. Was he a ghost or something? Kayla continued to contemplate as she pulled on her black sweatshirt and laid her head on top of her backpack a few meters away from the grating. Kayla continued to think about it until she fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

At around 6am, Kayla woke up. She was by nature an early riser. She looked out the vent grating to see GLaDOS and Chelsea where they were before. Kayla then checked her iPhone and it said 6:05am. She knew that once she woke up that she would not be able to fall asleep again so she sat up and kept vigil while silently snacking on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that she had made before leaving the hotel and been preserving in a super long lasting small cooler that Sylvie had invented.

Kayla then sipped on her water as silently as she could, but when she looked down, she almost yelled in shock at how low her water supply was. Kayla only had less than half a bottle of water left. She knew it would not last long and that she had to find some more but would have to leave Chelsea to do it. Kayla was conflicted. She did not want to leave Chelsea, but she knew that in order to help anyone she had to keep herself alive first.

"I'm sorry, Chelsea," Kayla whispered. "I have to go now, but I promise I'll be back soon."

Kayla put everything back in her backpack and was about to fly off when she suddenly remembered something.

"Every part of these vents looks the same," she thought. "How am I going to find my way back here? Maybe I could mark it with something."

Kayla looked in her backpack for ideas. She then noticed something that was left from a while back. It was a can of spray paint. Kayla and Chelsea had collected some spray paint from an art surplus store that was about a half an hour flight from the hotel on the Saturday before the whole incident with GLaDOS began. Kayla was planning on using it for an art project in the future and forgot that it was even in there. Kayla was an artist like Chelsea was who loved to use her creativity for different art projects that she did.

"I was in such a hurry that I didn't even notice them," Kayla thought to herself. "I guess God wants me to use them here."

Kayla was over the moon with happiness. However, she quickly realized that she had another problem. Spray paint made a noise when it was being sprayed. GLaDOS would notice and find her.

Kayla then put the can down and thought for a while. After several minutes, she came up with a plan. Kayla could move anything with her telekinesis, so she could suck the paint out through the hole telekinetically, too. It would work perfectly.

Once Kayla came up with her plan, she began to work. Very slowly Kayla pulled the red paint out of the hole at the top. Then she aimed it and began to paint on the side of the vent. Kayla painted the word "GLaDOS" on the left side of the grating and then drew a large arrow pointing to the opening. However, she wasn't satisfied, so she pulled the paint out again to create a drawing of GLaDOS on the left side of the vent. It looked exactly like GLaDOS, but in the drawing, she had demon horns on her head. It made Kayla smile and helped her deal with her pent-up rage. She was so pleased by the result that she took a picture.

With the test run done, Kayla lifted herself up off the bottom of the vent and flew horizontally towards the left. Her body was so petite that she could sit upright in the vent without hitting her head on the top. Kayla was grateful for that, because of how small the space was.

After flying for a while, Kayla stopped, telekinetically painted the word "GLaDOS" and an arrow pointing to the right, and then continued to fly on. Then after a few more minutes, she found the ventilation shaft going upwards. She painted the side of the vent with the word "GLaDOS" and an arrow pointing to the right once again before flying upwards.

Kayla flew upwards a considerable distance before finally reaching the top of that vent that came out at the surface. She painted the word "outside" on the side of the ventilation shaft and painted an arrow pointing outside. Kayla tarried a bit as she looked through the vents to see the sun starting to come out on the horizon to brighten up the world with the light of dawn. She knew that she had to continue on. She had to save Chelsea and the rest of her family. Kayla stuck her iPhone through the cracks of the grating and took a picture of the landscape and the coming dawn. She pulled her phone back, smiled at the result, and pulled her phone back into her backpack.

"I'll see you soon," Kayla said to the surrounding landscape. "Please don't let it go anywhere, God."

Kayla then headed downwards for a little bit. She shortly found a vent shaft heading to the left that she didn't notice on the way up. Kayla painted the word "GLaDOS" on the side of the shaft that was going downwards and painted an arrow pointing upwards and the word "outside." Kayla then flew into the vent shaft and shortly found another vent shaft that headed downwards. Kayla painted an arrow going toward the exit of vent and the words "Exit/GLaDOS." Kayla then kept going down until she shortly landed on a grating. She looked down and noticed a bathroom, a place with sinks that dispensed water.

Unfortunately for her the grating was just as tough as the grating going into GLaDOS's chamber and did not succumb easily when given her usual amount of telekinetic force.

"Dammit!" Kayla said quietly to herself. "Who the hell created these screws anyway? Black Mesa?"

Kayla flew up in frustration and concentrated on applying as much force as possible in order to break the vent grating. She quieted her mind and focused and applied a much stronger force to the grating below. When that didn't work, she applied even more force. She opened her eyes in frustration to see that the grating was bent outwards and not broken, but she would not give up. Kayla closed her eyes and focused as hard as she could and gave out one more powerful push. The grating finally gave in and fell to the floor in a clatter.

"Yes!" Kayla shouted in happiness before quieting her voice again because she did not know who was listening.

Kayla turned herself upside down and looked around the bathroom to make sure that there were no cameras. When she found nothing, she flew down and had a look around. The room was lit up with a glass window on the ceiling filling the room with light from the sun.

This bathroom was strange to her, though. It not only had sinks and stalls with toilets. It also had a shower. Kayla had seen gas station bathrooms and gym bathrooms with showers, but she never thought that there would be a shower inside the facility.

"That's weird," Kayla said. "Why is there a shower in here? Oh, well! I have a job to do. But first…"

Kayla went into a stall to use the bathroom. When she was done, she came to the sink to get the water.

Kayla turned on the water faucet, and water immediately came out. It looked clear to her, but she knew better. Like all water sources, it had to be tested. Her grandfather taught her well. She pulled a pH strip out of the side pocket of her backpack and held it under the running water. After a few minutes, she pulled it out and looked at it. The strip was green surprisingly. GLaDOS had kept the water neutral and safe to drink for some reason.

Nevertheless, Kayla still thought that the water could be dangerous, but since she was running low, she knew she had to test it.

"I'll drink a little bit of the water," Kayla said. "God, if I wake up seeing you, I'll know that the water is bad."

Using telekinesis, Kayla redirected the water. The water flowed in a stream through the air. Kayla always loved the way that it looked when she did that. It was magical. She made the water flow in a stream around her again and again until it made a coil of seven bands. Then Kayla moved it over and under the stalls of the bathroom. She smiled ear to ear. It was the happiest that she had felt since coming to Aperture. Kayla then moved the water up and down in wave patterns all around the room. She liked the way that it looked so much that she pulled her iPhone out of her backpack and moved it until it touched the ceiling to take a picture. Kayla clicked the button and pulled her iPhone back down while simultaneously continuing to move the water around.

"That looks awesome," Kayla said happily as she used a piece of cloth in her pocket as a finger to press the touch screen so she could look at the picture.

Kayla moved the water in a direct trajectory towards her mouth. Kayla took one gulp of it. Surprisingly, it tasted good, but she would have to wait for a while to see if the water had any side effects before she risked putting the water in her water bottle. She would have to depend on it in order to survive after all. Kayla redirected the rest of the water towards the sink and watched it all land with a splash. She then turned towards the wall, plugged her iPhone in to charge on top of her backpack in a nearby outlet, rested her head against the wall, and prayed.

Meanwhile, Sylvie was just waking up on the couch. The two other robots appeared to still be sleeping so she tried to be as quiet as possible more out of a desire to not have to deal with them than a desire to let them rest longer.

Sylvie got out her Bible and walked over to the window read it in the sunlight. She then prayed for many things but mostly that she would be successful in her endeavor.

Sylvie was scared. She could die fighting a giant robot that she could not control, she did not know where her friends were, and to top it all off, she had to deal with two robots that she didn't even know.

That last point was especially difficult for Sylvie to deal with because as a person she preferred being independent to needing to rely on someone else. She wanted to fight GLaDOS without having to depend on the help of two bumbling robots. Sylvie knew they meant well but had no clue what they were up against. She was grateful for them giving her a place to hide but was scared that they would mess up somehow. She could see into their minds and see how naïve they were. She did not want to deal with that. Sylvie loved people deep down but sometimes pushed them away in favor of doing things by herself. She liked doing things herself. She only had to worry about herself that way. Sylvie preferred to not have to deal with people. They could be unreliable and difficult to talk to. She was introverted and had a hard time connecting to others anyway. Sylvie had a tendency to distance herself from people she did not trust or know very well. In the whole congregation, Sylvie was closest to Chelsea, her family, Pastor Roberts, and the other mutants. Even then, it took her a long time to open up to the other mutants. For many years, Sylvie had just hung out around Chelsea and her family. It took her a while to begin to trust the others, even though Pastor Roberts was a friend of her parents. She was deep down a scared French woman who didn't want to rely on others.

Nonetheless as she ignored the fact that she had a hard time connecting to people, Sylvie knew that God was sending a challenge her way in order to force her to open her heart and rely on others. She knew that it was coming but why did it have to be now? Sylvie thought she did not have time to deal with them. She secretly wanted to run away from them so she would not have to worry about dealing with them.

However, Sylvie knew and accepted that she had to let down her pride and her defenses in order to follow the ways of someone higher. No matter how hard it was, she had to open herself up to the love and help of others. It was the only way she could succeed in life. The Bible said so. It didn't matter if it was inconvenient or uncomfortable or not. The Family of Christ was supposed to rely on all its members for help. People needed each other. That was the way they were made. It was the will of God, and if it was God's will, it had to be something good.

Sylvie prayed for the strength to trust God and the strength to take a risk by helping and depending on these robots who despite their mechanical origins were surely loved by God, too. They were helpless beings ruled by a monster. Despite her fears, she decided that she wanted to risk it all to help them as well as her friends. Sylvie read their minds and knew that they were not bad creations. They were innocent and confused. She had to help them. She knew that that was what she was going to do. Sylvie could not run off and ignore them. She would help them instead.

P-Body and Atlas began to stir. They opened their eyes and stretched their mechanical limbs. They then turned to look at Sylvie on the couch.

"Good Morning," Sylvie said as she smiled at them. "We have a lot of work to do. However, I need to eat first."

With that, she got up and walked toward the food synthesizer.

Back in the bathroom about an hour had passed, Kayla spent this time playing games on her iPhone while waiting to see if the water had any side effects. Sylvie had adapted the iPhone so that Kayla could press objects to it and make it work without the use of fingers, so Kayla took a tiny rolled up piece of toilet paper and applied pressure to it on the screen to play the games. The game froze midway as an alarm went off signaling that the hour had passed. Since she had not died or fallen ill, she figured that the water was safe to drink. Kayla was happy as she filled up her water bottle to the brim with fresh water. Kayla then drank some more water straight from the sink and sat back down. She began to feel hungry, so she pulled her sandwiches out of the cooler in her bag. Kayla's jaw dropped as she realized all of them had mold.

"I should have known," Kayla thought to herself in frustration. "I did make them at the hotel over 3 weeks ago. I thought the cooler and Albina's freezing would be able to keep them edible, but now they're all spoiled. Dammit!"

Kayla flew over to a garbage can and emptied all the sandwiches out of the cooler into it.

"Now, what am I going to do for food?" Kayla asked herself out loud.

Just then as she was looking down, she noticed something weird. There were potatoes growing on the ground. There were a bunch of them lining the ceiling and the floor through plants that she just now noticed were growing all over the bathroom.

"What the hell?" Kayla said following the line of potatoes on the wall and the floor. "Where did they all come from?"

Then she remembered.

"That's right. Aunt C said that her elementary school science project had something to do with potatoes, and it had grown all over the facility. Thank you, God!"

Kayla called Chell Aunt C because she, Zaki, and Roscoe really were like her aunt and uncles. It was Kayla's term of affection for her since Chell, Zaki, and Roscoe served the roles of surrogate parents to the orphaned mutant children of the Apocalypse. Chelsea was Chell's only biological child, but she didn't mind sharing her mother with all the mutant children. Pastor Roberts served as Kayla's father, but Chell was the closest thing to a mother that Kayla had ever known.

Anyways, Kayla picked up a potato, washed it off in the sink, and began to eat it. She wished that she had some butter or some salt, but otherwise, it was fine. After eating the whole potato, she decided to pick several more and prepared to go back to the vent inside of GLaDOS's chamber.

Kayla flew back up into the vent. She pulled out her red spray paint again and painted a big red arrow pointing downwards with the word "bathroom" written next to it. After making her mark, Kayla flew upwards. Because of her directions, she easily found her way back to GLaDOS's chamber.

"I told you I'd be back, Chelsea," Kayla thought to herself as she arrived at her spot behind the grating looking out onto GLaDOS's chamber.

She settled down and looked out of the vent. GLaDOS was where she always was, but Chelsea was gone.

"No," Kayla thought as she began to panic and tears came to her eyes. "No! I was supposed to be here for you. I was supposed to look after you like you looked after me. What can I do for you now? I've failed you again. Why did you let this happen, God? Why?"

Kayla quickly made her way back to the bathroom, sat against the wall, and started to cry. She was so angry at herself for failing again. Kayla wanted to protect Chelsea and be there for her to pay her back for how she had protected her. She wanted to help the others and not be a useless kid who only screwed up. She wanted to help, not to screw up. Kayla cried about it for about half an hour straight without stopping.

When that half an hour was up, Kayla pulled the belt strap out of her backpack and began to calm down and tried to pull herself together.

"There has to be something positive about this," Kayla said as she looked down at the belt and wiped the tears off her face with toilet paper. "Okay, there's nothing good about Chelsea disappearing, but there has to be one good thing that can be gleaned out of this at least. Yeah! All I have to do is figure out what it is."

She telekinetically pulled some more toilet paper out of one of the stalls in the bathroom and wiped her tears with it.

"Let's see. At least, I found this bathroom. I won't run out of water. I also have these potatoes to eat. That's two good things. I'm doing well. Awesome."

Kayla thought for a minute and figured out something else.

"I also know where that bitch's main chamber is now. I'm so glad that I had the can of spray paint in my backpack or else I would not have been able to find my way back at all."

All of a sudden, an idea struck Kayla like lightning. She flew up towards the skylight with a happy prayer.

"God, that's it! I know how I can help Chelsea and the others, too."

Kayla opened her backpack telekinetically and pulled her spray paint can towards her.

"I can map the whole facility using this! I'll fly through all the vents and paint trail markings everywhere I go. Then when I find the others, I can guide them to where GLaDOS is through the vents and that robot will never see us coming! Thank you, God! I'm a genius!"

She shook the spray paint can next to her ear. It was still pretty full. The amount of paint that Kayla pulled out telekinetically was much lower than the amount of paint that would be used normally. The can would last a while. Kayla looked in her backpack, and she found four more cans. Kayla had been in such a rush the past several weeks that she had not really even noticed them. Hopefully, they would last long enough for her to mark many of the vents. She pulled all of her stuff together, flew up the bathroom vent, and immediately got to work.

Meanwhile back in the break room, Sylvie was using her powers to fix the food synthesizer. Although she knew she was in a diabolical place, Sylvie could not help but be impressed by the technology that was being used here. Some of it was centuries ahead of the technology of the outside world as she knew it. Sylvie touched the machine and absorbed all of its manual information. Her mind was having a field day seeing all the technology and science that went into making something like it possible. Sylvie could tell a machine what to do without touching it. However whenever she touched technological or mechanical things, Sylvie could not only absorb its information in more detail. She could also absorb its memories and every little nook and cranny of scientific data that went into creating it. Sylvie could learn everything that anyone could possibly know about how something worked. She could see how it worked, how it was made in the first place, how the science behind its creation worked, and everything it could be used for all in a matter of about five minutes at the most or longer depending upon how large the machine was. Sylvie was happiest in this place. She could sit there like that forever.

P-Body and Atlas stood there exchanging confused looks once again. They were not quite sure about what was happening, but they knew she was doing something.

P-Body made some beeping noises that broke Sylvie's concentration.

"What am I doing?" Sylvie replied in an annoyed voice. "I am reading the machine's mind so that I can figure out how to get food! Is that alright with you?"

P-Body nodded in the submissive fear that he was used to responding to GLaDOS in.

"Then let me continue and stop interrupting me."

Sylvie read the machine's mind again for about another minute, but she felt guilty. She should not have been so rude to him. P-Body didn't deserve that.

"Listen," Sylvie said stopping herself mid-transmission and looking at P-Body. "I'm sorry for being so rude to you. I shouldn't snap at anyone who is trying to help me. Can you forgive me?"

P-Body beeped to ask a question.

"Forgiveness is to giving someone another chance after they have wronged you, because you have decided that you don't want to stay mad at them anymore. That's the simple definition anyway."

P-Body's memory bank immediately flashed back to Chelsea on her hands and knees begging him for help and forgiveness. He gravely nodded his head as he fully realized what Chelsea had wanted.

"Thanks," Sylvie said. "I really appreciate it."

After several minutes, she finished her work and got the machine working. Sylvie told the machine to make a blueberry muffin and to her amazement, it manifested right before her eyes.

She gasped in joy and said in French, "O, mon Dieu! C'est un miracle! (Oh, my God! It's a miracle!)"

Sylvie grabbed the muffin and started to eat it. It tasted every bit as good as the ones she remembered made back in France. She devoured it quickly and had the machine make another one. She did not realize that she was so ravenously hungry.

P-Body and Atlas gave her a very confused and amazed look.

"Why are you two staring at me?" Sylvie asked in curiosity as she was munching on her muffin.

Atlas chirped in this time.

"What I'm doing is called eating. Have you never seen humans eat before?"

They shook their heads.

Sylvie was amazed and slightly amused.

"Have you _ever_ observed humans before?"

P-Body held his fingers close together to signal a little bit. Atlas nodded his head in agreement.

"What _do_ you know about humans?"

Atlas responded, and P-Body slapped him across the face for being so insensitive.

Sylvie was shocked. Atlas had said that all they knew was that humans were useless except for being test subjects in experiments. At least, that is what GLaDOS said. He also said that she said some of them were monsters.

"GLaDOS is right and wrong," Sylvie said thoughtfully. "Some humans are horrible monsters, but we are not just good for being test subjects. We are more valuable than that. We were created by God a long time ago. Nobody knows exactly how long but that part doesn't matter. We were created as image bearers of Him, so to God, we are something special to Him. We are the most valuable creatures to him in fact. The good people are the ones who understand that and try to treat every person that way. The bad people are the ones like GLaDOS who treat others as if they are disposable objects that have no value except as objects to be used. That is how GLaDOS sees everybody, so she is the one who is bad."

The two robots' eyes shone like they had been enlightened for the first time in their lives. Sylvie immediately reflected on herself and realized in her own hypocrisy in the way that she had thought of them.

"I have to confess that I have not treated you as well as I should either, but from now on, I will do better. You know it just occurred to me that I never formally introduced myself. Talk about inconsiderate. My name is Sylvie. What are yours?"

P-Body and Atlas each pointed to the words printed on their sides.

"P-Body and Atlas," Sylvie read.

"Okay, Atlas," she said. "I will need to read your mind once I'm done eating. I need to get as complete a layout of the facility as possible. Can you help me?"

Atlas nodded his head. Sylvie smiled. The two robots got close to her and watched in fascination as food and water disappeared into her mouth. They watched every movement like they were watching the most dazzling thing in the universe. Their eyes followed every movement with wonder. They were enchanted with the sight. Their wonder made Sylvie smile.

After she finished, they acted disappointed. P-Body pointed towards the machine like he wanted to see more.

"That is all you get for right now," Sylvie said focused. "I have to work. You will see more later. Okay?"

P-Body nodded contently.

Sylvie then walked to her backpack, pulled out a toothbrush and toothpaste, and went into the bathroom. A few minutes later, she emerged, put away her things, and walked towards Atlas.

"The machinery in you is very complex, but I can do it. All I need is a full map of the facility," Sylvie said.

Atlas chirped.

"What do you mean you don't have it? You said you could help me."

Atlas chirped again.

"I don't need a partial layout. I need the whole layout in order to find everybody. This is just great. How am I going to figure out what layout of the place is now?"

Sylvie paced up and down for about ten minutes. Then, she lay down on the couch and began to think.

Meanwhile, Kayla was continuing to fly up and down the vents marking where everything was. She found multiple computer rooms. She found several vents leading outside and eventually she found another bathroom with a shower and a skylight in it. Kayla decided to stop there once the sun went down.

She flipped on the light switch, set her things down, filled up her water bottle, washed off another potato, and sat on the floor to eat it.

"I really wish I had some salt, some butter, and microwave, but I guess beggars can't be choosers," Kayla said looking up in praise. "Thank you, God, for the potato! Huh? That is a weird word. Isn't it? Potato? I wonder where it came from. I'll have to see if the answer is in any of my books when I get home."

Kayla racked her brains to remember if she hadn't read about it already. Kayla liked studying language. She found it very interesting. If the world was normal, she would try to go to school for linguistics, but for now, she was content to read about it in books while being a badass heroine.

When Kayla was done eating, she pulled back the curtain and looked in the shower. It was disgusting. There was mold growing all over it. However, Kayla felt like she needed a shower, and she had no other choice for where to find one.

"I am so glad that I do not have feet right now," Kayla said as turned the water on telepathically.

She took off her clothes and got into the shower. Kayla forgot how good it felt to take a hot shower and enjoyed every second of it. She used some soap that she had in her backpack to wash herself off from head to the rest of her body.

After Kayla was done, she put on her underwear, her jean shorts, and her strapless bra. Kayla wrapped her hair in a blanket and rested her back against the wall while her hair dried. She plugged her iPhone in to charge and pulled out her Bible. After reading that and praying, she put in some headphones and listened to her iPhone. There was music on it, because Sylvie figured out how to sync music into iPhones.

Kayla then pulled out her _Pride and Prejudice _book. She was sentimental and loved reading a good romance every now and again, so this book was perfect for her. Jane Austen was a great writer, too. She really knew how to use language well.

She then started daydreaming as every preteen does about finding that special someone. He would handsome and sweet. He would look into her eyes and grab hold of her hands…

"Wait, a minute," Kayla remembered aloud in sadness. "I have no hands. I don't have legs, arms, or feet either."

She then took out her headphones and flew in front of the mirror as she pulled the blanket out of her head and wrapped it around herself.

"What will it be like if I ever fall in love, God?" Kayla prayed aloud. "I can't hug him. I can't hold his hand. I don't look like the other girls do. I don't have long skinny legs to attract his attention. Hell, most guys will probably think that I look freaky. I have nothing to worry about because no guy will ever find me attractive to begin with."

Kayla smiled sadly as her eyes started to tear up.

"I'm being ridiculous," she said to herself. "My friends and I are trapped in a mad scientist's laboratory and I'm thinking about romance? I can't think about that now. I have to think about something else."

However try as she might, Kayla could not think about anything else. No one had ever teased her about having no arms and legs. The people of the church were always kind to her and never let anyone make fun of her for it. But in the age of adolescence, she had begun to seriously doubt herself. Kayla may have had a very optimistic and encouraging personality, but she still had her insecurities. She knew that if it weren't for her telekinesis she would be completely helpless. Kayla understood the pity in the eyes of some of the older church men and women who saw her as a helpless child. She did not like being seen as helpless. She did not want to be seen as helpless by anyone. She wanted to help and not be seen as a burden. She feared being helpless and being seen as a cripple. Those were the two things that she feared the most. Kayla wanted to be treated like everyone else.

However in all the movies, it was the skinny, beautiful girl with long legs and skinny arms that got the boy. People like her were generally never even mentioned, and if they were mentioned, it was as objects of pity. People like her were seen as pitiable for living lives that weren't living and were treated as such. Some films even argued that these people should be allowed to kill themselves because they were miserable and not contributing to society anyway. The Christians of the First Christian Church may not have seen her that way but Kayla knew there was a world of people who did and would likely only see her that way. All of these thoughts rushed in her head and made her sad to the point where she was crying.

"God, I can't think about this now. Help me forget. Help me to think about something else. I have better things to worry about. I don't want to deal with this. Why did you make me like this anyway? Why couldn't I be a normal girl with arms and legs with telekinesis? Why did the radiation have to take away my arms and legs? It just isn't fair. It just isn't fair! I want to be beautiful!"

Kayla started crying but then a beautiful, distant memory came rushing back to her.

Kayla's mother, Veronica, was a telepath like Zaki. She fought with Kayla's father against the Combines. Kayla was born on the frontlines. Her parents wanted to take her to safety as soon as they figured out she was coming, but the fighting was too fierce outside. They couldn't get away. It remained fierce until the aliens broke into their base when Kayla was nine months old. Her parents died protecting her from the aliens. Kayla knew this not only because her grandfather told her but because she had a memory of her Mom's last moments. As she was dying, Veronica used her powers to implant one strong memory in the mind of her baby girl that would last for the rest of her life.

"Hello, my little angel," Veronica said smiling weakly at her baby girl with her green eyes and short red hair. "I'm so sorry that your daddy and I won't be there for the rest of your life. We would love to be here for you more than anything else in the world. However Kayla, the best I can do for you is to give you this memory. Your father and I love you very much. We want you to know that. We also want you to know that you are very special, not just because of your powers but also because God made you special. You have no arms or legs, and people will look down on you because of that. I know you will have doubts and insecurities as a girl, and I wish I could be there to hug you and encourage you whenever you feel sad. We just want you to know that it's okay. You can bring all your questions to God. We want you to know that we don't care how you look and neither should you. You are our beautiful baby girl, and you always will be. Your smiling face has made me and your father happier in these past months than you could ever know. You are beautiful in God's eyes and in ours. We never want you to forget that for as long as you live. Stay strong, my sweet Kayla. Don't ever think less of yourself because of any doubt you have or because of anything that anyone says. We love you and we will see you again once you reach the other side. Don't ever forget."

Recalling this memory made Kayla cry with tears of joy.

"I won't forget," Kayla said. "Thank you, Mom! I love you, too."

Kayla pulled her hairbrush out of her backpack and brushed her hair until it was straight. Then she pulled a plastic bag out containing her toothbrush and toothpaste, pulled them out of the bag, brushed her teeth, and smiled.

"You know, Lord, my Mom was right," Kayla prayed. "I don't look bad at all. Thank you for reminding me that and for making her a part of my life even if it is only in my memory."

With that, she put on her shirt and her sleeveless, black hoodie once again, pulled all her stuff back into her backpack after making sure it was all cleaned, pulled her head on top of her backpack, pulled her blanket over body, flipped off the lights, and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, Sylvie was still on the couch thinking. She had been lying on the couch for about an hour while the robots tossed around different possibilities and tried to give her ideas for how they should proceed. Sylvie had spent the rest of the day reading the minds of both of the robots seeing if there was any information inside of them that could be used. Now, she was trying to figure out how to use what she had learned while drinking water and eating a sandwich that she got the food synthesizer to create.

Sylvie needed to get a map of the facility and any other information that was available in order for the group to accomplish their mission. Unfortunately, Atlas and P-Body simply did not have much information inside their memory banks. Sylvie needed to access the computers that did, but there was a limit to how much her mind could do when she was far away. She needed a way to access the facility's information network.

P-Body and Atlas knew what Sylvie was trying to do and were trying to help...in their own way.

Atlas chirped.

"I already tried that, Atlas," Sylvie said as she picked up her water bottle to get another drink. "It didn't work."

P-Body was sitting on the ground watching Sylvie eat while Altas was standing in the corner continuing to come up with ideas.

Atlas chirped again because he came up with another idea.

"There is no way that could work. That's too dangerous unless one of you has the power to hypnotize GLaDOS or turn invisible. I cannot control her. Remember?"

P-Body suddenly leaped up on his feet with an idea. He told it to Sylvie immediately.

"I don't have to be invisible? How do you mean?"

P-Body responded.

"You could find out for me by accessing the computers yourselves? I like the idea, P-Body, but honestly, GLaDOS would figure it out if a security breach was coming from you two. Then, she would get suspicious and that would ruin everything. If only there was a way to access the network's information from the network without her finding out what we're doing."

Suddenly, Sylvie sat up. She had an idea of her own.

"Hey, guys!" Sylvie said excitedly. "Remember how I turned off the chip inside you that GLaDOS could use to spy through you?"

They both nodded their heads and gave affirmative beeps.

"What if I could use that same chip and your antennae to create a signal that would allow me to access one of GLaDOS's computers?"

P-Body and Atlas looked at each other. P-Body started to jump up and down with excitement.

"Think about it. I have the ability to telepathically connect to any computer. I could theoretically access any computer from far away as long as I can create a signal. It doesn't matter how far away it is. That is how hacking used to work. I can use you two to make it work. I will need to test it out on something to see if I can do it, and I already have an idea on where to do it."

Sylvie remembered that Kayla carried around an old iPhone. An iPhone was like a mini-computer in the old days and if Sylvie could access a cell phone, a computer was the next step up.

"Do either of you know what a cell phone is?" Sylvie asked.

They both gave negative beeps.

"It's a communication device that humans use or well use to use before the world fell apart but that is a story for another day. Anyways, I'm going to test it out on Kayla's iPhone. I just hope that Kayla is nowhere near GLaDOS and that her phone is on silent. Atlas, come here. Is it alright if I use your antennae?"

Atlas gave an affirmative beep as he walked up to her. Sylvie then laid her hands on him and focused on telepathically creating a signal through him to access Kayla's iPhone.

Meanwhile, Kayla was still asleep in the bathroom when she woke up with a start. She heard the sound of her iPhone ringing and froze in shock. Since the Combines had taken over, all cellular services were disbanded. Kayla had only ever heard the sound of a ringing cell phone in movies or TV shows that she watched. Kayla had never heard a ringing phone in real life.

"What in the hell?" she said as she picked up the phone telekinetically. "Who could be calling me?"

Kayla looked at the phone and the caller was titled unknown.

Kayla slid the phone against her nose in order to get it to answer the call. Once she did that, she moved the phone next to her ear.

"Hello," Kayla asked apprehensively.

"Yes, it worked!" said the familiar voice on the other line.

"Who is this?" Kayla asked.

"Kayla, it is me, Sylvie," the voice said.

"Holy shit! You can't be serious! How are you doing this?"

"I am creating a signal that I could use to hack into one of GLaDOS's computers. I needed to test it on something first, so I decided to use the iPhone. That's the short version anyway," Sylvie said looking at the robots. "However, I need to know what is going on with you. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing alright I guess," Kayla replied in relief. "I was just sleeping in a bathroom. I found some spray paint in my backpack and I'm now using it to mark the vents so that we will be able to find our way around and get back to GLaDOS when we escape. I had sight of Chelsea, but that bitch took her away when I left to find some water."

"Kayla, do not worry. We will find her again. I'm glad you are marking the vents. That is wonderful. That will help us so much."

"You know what would help me so much? Tell me where you are. I think I'd be safer with a group than by myself."

"That's just the problem. I couldn't tell you because I don't know, but I might be able to soon."

"I will just have to find you. Does your room have a vent? Also, how are you? Are you alright?"

"Yes and yes, I have found a few unexpected allies who are helping me."

"Who are these allies?"

"I will have to explain that to you in person. You're not going to believe me otherwise."

Just then, Sylvie began getting some interference.

_"Blue, where are you? Blue?" _

That voice was GLaDOS's. Sylvie went silent in fear.

"Oh, God," she said.

"What is it?" Kayla asked just as fearfully. "Was that GLaDOS?!"

"Kayla, I will have to call you back. Goodbye!" Sylvie said ending the signal suddenly.

Kayla was scared, but she had to find Sylvie and help her any way she could. Throwing her things into her backpack and pulling out her flashlight, she flew back into the vent. Kayla was not about to let GLaDOS take away Sylvie, too. In determination, she flew back in the direction of GLaDOS.

Meanwhile back in the employee lounge, Sylvie could feel her heart beating in her ears. Atlas was shaken, too.

P-Body made beeping noises to ask what was going on.

"GLaDOS is calling for you," Sylvie said.

P-Body began to shake.

"You two must go to her now," Sylvie said. "I'll wait here. Just go and please don't let her figure out what's going on."

P-Body and Atlas gave fearful but affirmative beeps and walked outside the room tentatively. Very quickly, they found their way back to the main chamber where GLaDOS was.

"Thank God," GLaDOS said in relief as she saw them enter the door. "You two are back to functioning order. I was afraid that you had broken down permanently. After this meeting, you both should get your transmitters checked. I have not been able to contact you for the past 24 hours when I really needed your help. The patient had to be sent back to the hospital wing of the facility this morning because she was coughing up blood in her sleep. It was disgusting. I had to hold her up so she wouldn't choke on it, and her blood got _everywhere._ It took forever to clean up. Evidently, there is some kind of infection inside her chest. The doctor robots weren't careful enough when they were examining her insides. I destroyed them and have assembled new ones to take care of her while they make an official diagnosis. Whatever it is, she's now very ill, so all the work is being postponed until they find out what's wrong and treat it. However as long as her disease isn't life-threatening, I estimate that in about two weeks she will be well enough to test. Anyways, during that time, I am going to need your help to guard her as much as possible. Her family is going to keep coming for her. We need to be careful because we will not be able to keep them all away that easily. These humans are not like the others. They are all powerful monsters that we cannot control. They have the capability to destroy us that normal humans don't. With that said, there is one of them that I am worried more than the others...Orange?"

P-Body looked up at her and beeped affirmatively.

"Do you remember what our patient said? About the woman she knew who was good with machines?"

With a heavy heart and nervous mind, P-Body gave affirmative beeps.

"I don't know if she just meant that she was a good mechanic or engineer or if she meant that woman's power had something to do with machines, but either way, she is the biggest threat. A mutant with the power to control machines would be the one to destroy all of us. Of all the mutants, that woman is the number one priority. Have you seen anyone around that you think might describe her?"

Unbeknownst to them, Sylvie was watching the scene telepathically through Atlas's mind. She had just begun to trust them, but she did not know if they would crack under pressure or if they would protect her. Their lives were on the line more immediately than hers was and in case they cracked, she was prepared to run. If they turned her in, GLaDOS would spare her for testing or kill her and leave them alone. If they protected her, GLaDOS would kill them once she found out. They had everything to fear from her and nothing to gain except a new life that could or could not be something good. All Sylvie could do was pray.

"God, protect me," she said with her hands on her head sitting on the couch.

P-Body gave negative beeps in response to GLaDOS's question.

Sylvie bolted upright in surprise.

"How about you, Blue? Have you seen anyone like that around or _any_ human in general?" GLaDOS asked.

Atlas also beeped negatively.

Sylvie smiled with joy.

"You bring anyone you find straight to me. Is that understood?" GLaDOS said.

The robots both beeped affirmatively and turned to leave.

Immediately, GLaDOS shook her head in shame and with a heavy sigh said, "You disappoint me, Orange."

The robots turned on their heels in fear. Sylvie could feel her heart beat faster.

"I was giving you a chance to confess, but you didn't take it," GLaDOS said in a spiteful monotone, a tone that both Atlas and P-Body knew that GLaDOS only used when she was trying to control her anger. "How dumb do you think I am? Did you think I really wouldn't find out? I know that you tried to help her."

Poor P-Body was scared out of his mind. He was practically shaking. Atlas stared at him and back at GLaDOS in a look of terror.

"Last night before I talked to Chell, I caught a conversation between you and the subject of my worries. I know that she is in fact a technological telepath. She is a tall, French, blond-haired woman with blue eyes. Right?"

GLaDOS pulled closer to them and continued in her monotone, "She could understand every word you said, because she could read your mind. Am I wrong? I know I'm not. But it was your words that disturbed me the most, Orange. According to her, you said that you wanted to help her and were trying to make a plan with Blue to save the patient, flagrantly going against my orders and selfishly disregarding _me _and _everything_ that I have ever done for you! After that, she ran off and I don't know what happened to her. By the time I was done dealing with my problems up here, you two were nowhere to be found. The reassembling machine hadn't seen you and your transmitters broke down mysteriously for about 24 hours. I don't think that's a coincidence."

P-Body was shaking. Atlas had moved closer to him and was staring at GLaDOS with a look of fear, one look that she was very familiar with.

"Oh, don't be scared," GLaDOS said soothingly, seeing how scared P-Body was. "I may have been a bit too harsh with you. After all, you have been through a lot these past few days. You have been kidnapped and attacked by a crazy human who has clearly messed with your emotions. You have been conflicted and confused. _Perhaps_ in your confused state, you weren't thinking clearly and did something you knew was stupid. Then you were too afraid to admit it, because you were afraid of being punished. However, I'm here to tell you that I will not get angry. I will not try to hurt you in any way, shape, or form. I am willing to forgive you and forget that this trespass ever occurred if you bring her to me immediately. She trusts you. Doesn't she? Just tell her that I'm dead or something ridiculous like that. She will come running in here and then I will deal with her before she becomes a problem. Do we have a deal?"

P-Body couldn't even look at her. He was staring at the floor thinking. P-Body knew that to survive he would have to betray his friend. That was the logical thing to do. Nevertheless, the more he thought about it the more that he realized he couldn't do it. P-Body enjoyed being with Sylvie. He liked how fascinated she was about the machines. He liked how she seemed to know everything. He liked how hard she tried to be kind to them and admitted to them when she made mistakes. P-Body realized now that Sylvie was right about GLaDOS. GLaDOS only wanted to use them. She bossed them around like slaves and never cared about how they were treated. Sylvie was the first person to be kind to them and actually be considerate of their feelings. She treated them like friends, and he found that he could not betray his friend even if he faced death. Atlas tried to look him in the eye but P-Body looked away from him and looked up at GLaDOS.

"Well," GLaDOS said. "Do we?"

Sylvie held her breath.

With a strong resolve and serious look in his eye, P-Body crossed his arms, lowered his upper eye-shield into defiant glare, and gave a loud negative beep to say no knowing it could mean his own death.

"What?!" GLaDOS yelled incredulously. "You're not going to tell me?"

P-Body gave a negative beep again. Sylvie had tears in her eyes at this point.

"You are an imbecile," GLaDOS said with a voice full of spite. "You are going to sacrifice your life to save one of those monsters. That's just pathetic! Humans aren't worth that effort, you idiot. They are useless things who take your life completely for granted and destroy for no good reason. She is just one more with extraordinary power. She is just a monster and nothing more."

P-Body uncrossed his arms, pulled them down by his side, balled his fists angrily, and continued to give negative beeps.

"You don't believe me? Trust me. She doesn't really care. Just go back to her and see. She will destroy you once she finds out that I know. She _will_ destroy you when she figures out you're useless and can't protect her anymore."

P-Body gave negative beeps again.

"How could you be so _ungrateful _and _stupid_? It was _me_ who put you together the first time. It has been _me_ who has looked after you ever since. Have you _really _forgotten that? What could these _humans _do for you? I was worried that you were becoming too human, Orange. You have been acting like one more and more ever since _she_ arrived. It looks like I was right. You are useless to me now. Prepare to be destroyed permanently."

With that, Sylvie ran out of the room and followed the mental map that the robots followed to get back to the main chamber. These robots _were_ her friends. They were risking their lives to save her. Sylvie could not believe she was doing it, but she ran as fast as she could to get to the main chamber to try to save them. She had only known them for about a day, but they already were risking their lives for her. Sylvie had never believed that anyone could care that much about anyone they barely knew. She had trouble doing it, but she admitted to herself that she loved them, too. Now, she was performing the greatest act of love that could ever be carried out according to Scripture. She was laying down her life possibly to protect her two new friends.

Meanwhile back in the main chamber, Atlas walked next to P-Body, grabbed his hand, and stared right at GLaDOS.

"What _are_ you doing, Blue? You were involved, too?" GLaDOS asked.

Atlas bravely gave affirmative beeps.

"I can't believe this! I always thought of you as the more level-headed one, Blue. I figured that Orange was the one rebelling and that the woman just put you back together minus the transmitter and erased your memory. I didn't think you would get involved with that. Are _you_ going against me now, too?"

Atlas looked at P-Body and nodded yes. One could not live without the other. No matter what happened they were in this together. They were family to one another.

Sylvie could see this development in her mind. She was close to entering the room. She couldn't believe what she was doing. She was scared and unsure of what she was doing. Sylvie stopped in place just a few paces from entering the room to contemplate. She barely knew these robots. She may have decided to love them, but she did not have a connection to them like she did with the other mutants. Sylvie could turn and run away, and GLaDOS would be none the wiser. She knew that while she had power over the technology of the facility she had no power over GLaDOS herself. She did not know what she would do. She listened. She was close enough to be able to hear GLaDOS yell at them.

Sylvie touched her right hand against the wall. Her heart was beating out of her chest, and she was sweating profusely. There are times when there is nothing glamorous about doing the right thing. People in the Bible knew that and Sylvie realized that at that moment. The Bible talked about loving your neighbor to the point of death. One could talk about living that way all day long. However, living it out was something else. Sylvie felt like Corrie ten Boom being led away to the Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany or Joan of Arc being led to be burned at the stake. Was this act of kindness towards these artificial life forms worth all the pain? Were they even truly alive? Was Sylvie risking her life for nothing? She smacked herself in the head to get herself to focus. She could not stand there now. She had to make a choice. These robots could love. They had to be alive. They loved her. The ability to love came from God. Therefore, they were touched by God. That meant that they could have souls. Sylvie could not let their souls perish, so despite her fears, she slowly walked forward dragging her right hand against the wall.

"Papa, Maman, je puis être avec vous bientôt (Dad, Mom, I may be with you soon)," Sylvie whispered in French. "Aide-moi, mon Dieu. Je veux savoir ce qui je fais est bien. Je sais que c'est bien mais je ne me le sens pas maintenant. J'ai peur. (Help me, God. I want to know that which I'm doing is good. I know that it's good but I don't feel it right now. I'm scared.)"

Suddenly, Sylvie felt a supernatural courage rise up in her. She took her hand off the wall and ran towards the room. She stood in the entrance and stared straight into GLaDOS's eye, interrupting her mid-sentence. P-Body and Atlas turned around in surprise.

"Oh, there, you are," GLaDOS said, secretly nervous about Sylvie's powers. "That solves one problem. What _are_ you doing here? Do you have a death wish?"

"Leave them alone, GLaDOS," Sylvie said. "They are my friends, and I'm not going to let you hurt them. _Let them go._"

Sylvie heard the door slam behind her. She didn't even bother to turn around but just held her ground and stared forward.

"It _really_ is you," GLaDOS replied. "I recognize your voice from the message you sent on the intercom and from Orange's ears. While I wish that I could just let you disappear and go on with my life, I know that's not going to happen. You will only cause me more trouble if I just turn a blind eye, so I think I will get rid of one major problem. How does that sound?"

GLaDOS then turned to P-Body and Atlas and said, "Orange and Blue, this is your last chance. If you step away from her, you will be pardoned after she is dead."

P-Body stepped beside her and then Atlas did the same thing. They both decided that they would risk their lives for her like a family, or at least, P-Body decided and Atlas decided to go along with it. However, they both knew GLaDOS was wrong about them and the humans now. They were _not_ all horrible. Sylvie was risking her life to save them, and from then now, she would be there to love them and care for them. They could trust her.

"Fine, then," GLaDOS said, swallowing her feelings of betrayal. "All of you can just die."

GLaDOS used her claws to bring many turrets which surrounded them in droves. Atlas and P-Body wrapped their arms around each other in preparation for the end. Sylvie shut her eyes and concentrated. Instantly, turrets malfunctioned left and right. One by one, they fell on their sides and exploded, except for one standing in front of them. Its eye turned bright blue.

"I will protect you, lady," the turret said as Sylvie turned him around so that he was standing in front of her leg and looking at GLaDOS.

Sylvie smiled. She had gained control of the mind of this turret, so she knew that she would have no problem getting the others to comply once GLaDOS brought them out. The turret then turned its guns on GLaDOS.

"You will not hurt my lady," the turret said as he began firing bullets at GLaDOS.

All GLaDOS could do was pull up platform tiles in self-defense.

Sylvie then put her hands on the floor and caused the platform to go up, so that the four of them were heading toward the ceiling where the lift would be. The turret continued firing until GLaDOS was out of range.

GLaDOS was terrified by the power of this mutant but she did not let it show. She also was growing suspicious of this power. Why couldn't the blond mutant just turn her off? Then in an instant, she understood. The mutant must have been able to control everything except GLaDOS herself. That had to be the explanation.

"You can't control me. Can you?" GLaDOS asked with a voice full of mocking spite as she lowered the shields.

Sylvie refused to look at her but continued her work while Atlas and P-Body stared at her with a look of fear. P-Body tapped on her shoulder to ask if it was true.

Sylvie turned around with a face full of fear and said, "I'm sorry."

Atlas and P-Body felt their metaphorical hearts sink in terror.

"I don't know what I was afraid of. There is not much you can do against me after all. Even so, I still should give you some credit. You have some pretty good tricks," GLaDOS said as a screen was pulled out from the wall. "But, can your tricks allow you to breathe when the air is full of neurotoxin?"

With that, the countdown on the screen began and GLaDOS activated the neurotoxin. Sylvie was terrified. She knew that she had six minutes to live. Sylvie continued to try to call down the lift but GLaDOS wouldn't let it budge. She felt hopeless. She wasn't sure what she could do since she couldn't control GLaDOS. Sylvie tried moving the tiles on the wall quickly, but GLaDOS wouldn't let her do that.

However just when everything appeared hopeless, a miracle happened. GLaDOS felt a metal grating hit her on the back of her head.

"What now?" GLaDOS said as she turned her head to see Kayla who had just flown out of the air vent that she was flying in.

"Sylvie, are you alright?" Kayla asked as she looked at Sylvie. Then upon seeing the robots, she said, "_They_ are your allies?"

"Yes, I will explain later, but we have to get out of here! She is going to fill the room with neurotoxin. You need to do something!" Sylvie yelled.

"You look interesting," GLaDOS said spitefully to Kayla. "To put it more bluntly, you are the weirdest thing that I have ever seen in my entire life. I have never seen a flying cripple before. You are quite the oddity. Unfortunately, I have to kill you, too. You're far too young and disabled for me to use you. You're completely useless."

"I am not!" Kayla yelled. Then remembering what Chell said, she quickly pulled herself together and formed a plan of action.

"Sylvie, get on the ground now! I'm getting us out of here!" Kayla yelled. "You might want to hold on to something."

Sylvie made the platform land on the ground and created a sort of bomb shelter from the platforms on the floor that GLaDOS surprisingly let her use. It seemed that the AI wanted to see what Kayla was going to do.

"Tell me, how did God act in your life besides taking your arms and legs away when you were born?" GLaDOS asked as she continued to look her over.

"Listen up, GLaDOS," Kayla said trying to ignore her words. "I have a message from my Aunt C, otherwise known as Chell."

"Aunt C?" GLaDOS asked.

In an instant, Kayla got to work. She flew to the center of the room and began whipping up the room with her telekinesis, pushing her mind to work harder than it ever had before. Telekinetic winds began blowing around and around the room like a kind of twister picking up the turrets and throwing them in every direction.

"What is going on?" GLaDOS asked in an almost panic. "How are you doing this? You're doing this with your mind! Aren't you?"

Kayla continued her work as the clock counted down to five minutes. GLaDOS swerved out of the way to avoid the dead turrets as she stared at her in fear and fascination

"Stop this!" GLaDOS screamed. "I said to cut it out! This is pointless! This will not make me turn off the neurotoxin! If anything, you are pushing me to make it come faster."

Kayla continued moving the turrets around the room faster and faster and began to rip the platform tiles off the walls. GLaDOS knew that she couldn't avoid her for long. She was going to get hit and even worse, her chamber was going to be destroyed.

"Are you just trying to prove yourself, little cripple?" GLaDOS asked. "This really is pathetic! You must put up such a display just to prove that you are worth something. You must be unconfident. It is not incomprehensible in your case. You are a helpless cripple after all, but that doesn't mean you can't have a bit of dignity. This really is too much."

"Don't listen to her, Kayla," Sylvie yelled.

"Is that not true, kid? Are you not just making a fuss because you're afraid that I'll write you off like everyone else? Were your parents like Chell's? Did they abandon you because they thought you were worthless because of your birth defects? Weak humans often will try to do big and impressive things when they are trying to compensate for a weakness they have. In your case, your reasoning is obvious. It is weak nonetheless."

"Shut up, you monster!" Sylvie yelled as Kayla made the objects in her grasp spin faster and faster and hit harder and harder against the body of GLaDOS.

"Are you incapable of defending yourself, little girl?" GLaDOS asked. "Why don't you stop this childish display and talk to me like an adult?"

"SHUT UP," Kayla screamed at the top of her lungs with tears in her eyes as she reheard in her heads all the doubts that GLaDOS seemed to echo in her words. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR GOD DAMN VOICE ANYMORE! JUST DIE!"

Suddenly, Kayla redirected all her projectiles towards GLaDOS's head. One by one they hit her and piled up on each other leaving GLaDOS unconscious under a pile of debris. There were four minutes left on the clock until the room filled up with neurotoxin.

Kayla flashed a faintly sadistic smile and had a bit of an unsettlingly hearty laugh in response to the work that she had just done.

"I did it," Kayla said while laughing. "I made her shut up. Now, I will knock her lights out permanently."

Sylvie pulled down her bomb shelter as she and the three other robots came out.

"Kayla, come on," Sylvie yelled. "We have to get out of here before the gas kills us."

"No," Kayla yelled. "This is my only chance. This is the only time I might be able to kill her! I must do it for Chelsea! I let her down before. I can't do it again! Besides, you're the technological telepath. Turn the gas off."

"I'm not sure that I can stop it before the gas comes out. I want to leave the room to make sure we'll be safe."

"I might not get another chance like this!"

"You will! Please, I could never face myself or your grandfather again if you died. I don't know how long GLaDOS will be out either. Please come with me just to be safe, Kayla! Please!"

"Fine!" Kayla yelled reluctantly.

With that, Kayla flew down to where Sylvie was in front of the door. There were now three minutes left on the countdown. Sylvie could control the door since GLaDOS was knocked out. She opened the door, and she, Kayla, and the two robots with the turret being carried by P-Body made their exit with the door slamming behind them.

Behind the door, Sylvie telepathically was able to shut off the neurotoxin countdown and stop the gas from being pumped into the room. Subsequently, she kneeled next to Atlas.

"May I do some hacking through your mind?" Sylvie asked.

Atlas gave affirmative beeps as Sylvie went into his mind.

Sylvie very quickly found the neurotoxin gas producer. She then told it to malfunction irreparably. Immediately, all the lines connected to the neurotoxin producer broke from their connection to the machine and then the machine itself fell apart.

Sylvie could have made the machine explode, but she knew that it would kill all of them. It was somewhat startling for her to know that she had that much power.

Sylvie reveled in her accomplishment, but she jumped when she heard a sickening noise on the other side of the door. Sylvie heard the sound of GLaDOS lifting up her head from under the debris.

"What's wrong?" asked Kayla. "What's that noise?"

"The good news is that I think I have permanently disabled the neurotoxin producer, but the bad news is that GLaDOS is awake now," Sylvie replied.

"You should have let me kill her," Kayla said quietly yet angrily. "Now, she is going to be pissed. What do we do now?"

"We will go back to our hiding place," Sylvie said looking at her three robot friends. "But along the way, we will break as much as possible so that GLaDOS cannot track us."

Kayla smiled and said, "That sounds fun."

"Speaking of which," Sylvie said as she looked at Atlas and P-Body. "You two will not need her trackers on you anymore."

With that, she touched them both on the head and turned off the tracking devices that GLaDOS had programmed into them permanently.

"You three are members of our team now," Sylvie said to them. "There's no turning back from here. Can you handle this?"

P-Body answered for the three of them giving a thumbs up.

"Good," Sylvie said. "Let's go."

P-Body handed the turret to Atlas who received him with a shrug and the group of five ran off.

Meanwhile, GLaDOS was alone in the main chamber, shaking off her electronic daze. She was shocked. Looking around, GLaDOS realized that the group of five had disappeared. That was the second time in her life that anyone had successfully escaped from her. It was incredible. She stared at the wall for a while then she looked at the ground at all the dead turrets and broken platforms. GLaDOS could not believe what was happening. As she thought, she noticed that the room was not full of neurotoxin. GLaDOS checked to see what the problem was only to discover that the neurotoxin machine was completely destroyed. She knew it had to be that woman's doing. GLaDOS could not kill any of them with neurotoxin now.

The way the whole situation was playing out was almost too perfect. GLaDOS was dealing with mutated humans running loose in her facility. Each of them had a special gift that set them apart from other humans and made them a match for GLaDOS. These humans all were also connected to the only human who had ever defeated her. Together with their powers, Chell's experience, and a lot of religious conviction, they could potentially do anything they wanted. GLaDOS had hurt one of their own and now they wanted her dead. They had the ability to make that happen. To make matters worse, the Aperture Science robots were turning against her. First Orange, then Blue, and then one of the turrets, before she knew it, they could have all of the robots fighting against her. Together with Chell, the mutant powers, and the help of the facility's robots, the group could defeat GLaDOS. The situation was perfect for them GLaDOS thought.

"Perhaps, you are with them after all, God," GLaDOS said out loud with a quiet laugh. "Even so, I am not giving up that easily. I will not lose."


	5. Chapter 5

Sylvie, Kayla, and the three robots ran together.

Sylvie broke every video camera that she could sense from standing on that floor. When she had finished that, she received a boost from P-Body and held the last camera in her hands.

Sylvie knew that GLaDOS was most likely staring at her from the other end, so she held it up to her face and said, "You better repent while you have the chance, GLaDOS. Release Chelsea and the others now or else you will lose the facility and then you will die. I may not be able to control you, but I can control everything around you. I will make it so that it's impossible to function in this place until you let them go. Speaking of which, prepare to have most of your eyes taken away. Au revoir!"

With that, Sylvie telepathically told the other cameras in her part of the facility to malfunction immediately. They broke all over the place. The sound of exploding cameras could be heard everywhere and GLaDOS could do nothing to stop it since she was too far away to control them directly.

From her main chamber, GLaDOS watched in horror and anger as all the cameras broke simultaneously. She could see nothing in the hallways or in any room of the facility except the main testing chambers and the hospital wing since those cameras were all attached to a different circuit board, but Sylvie might find those too before too long. To make matters worse, GLaDOS could not activate the neurotoxin because Sylvie broke it or the turrets because Sylvie would just break them or brainwash them like she did to Atlas and P-Body.

"That horrible pest," GLaDOS said to herself. "There's almost nothing I can do to stop her. Oh, well! Stay positive. I still have her other little friends under my surveillance at least. I will just have to guard them as well as I can until I can figure out something else. At any rate, this will not hold me back for long."

Meanwhile, Kayla was destroying everything in sight out of a kind of rage intermingled with psychotic joy, the kind that school shooters felt. She had never been bullied before in her life, and she had no idea how to take it. She felt herself get taken over by pure rage so she was going crazy and destroying everything in sight with her telekinesis. She tore pictures off the wall, she broke glass out of windows, and she destroyed every turret that she ran into. She would lift them up in the air, juggle them around, and then make them explode. One could say that Kayla temporarily gave into the madness around her. She felt like a madman as she flew around making papers explode out of printers, tearing apart monitors, lifting tiles off the ground and off the ceiling, and throwing turrets around like they were toys, but for the time being, she did not care. Kayla really enjoyed the wanton destruction that she was carrying out. The more she did it, the more she loved it and wanted to continue. Kayla was getting to use more power than she had ever used in her entire life and was enjoying seeing just how much destruction she could carry out.

Kayla stopped in one room that was formerly somebody's office, and she went insane. She broke out in a sadistic laugh and broke everything in sight. She smashed the picture of Cave Johnson on the wall, she broke apart the desk, she pulled files out of the cabinets, she spun around and around in a sort of ecstasy of chaos with dozens of papers spinning around her, and she started to make cracks appear in the floor.

Kayla was trying to drown out the voice of GLaDOS in her head. She was trying to drown it out with all the violence that she was carrying out.

Kayla heard the stories of what happened to Chell in this place. She never thought that she would be so terrified in her life. She never thought that any situation could be so hopeless that she would want to go insane just to feel distant from the horror of it all, but here she was, letting out how she really felt about the place and how she felt about GLaDOS.

After allowing this to go on for a while, Sylvie started to recognize what was happening. Kayla was lashing out since GLaDOS had pushed her because she did not know how else to handle it. Sylvie did not want to intervene. She was not used to intervening, but she knew that she had to or Kayla may have snapped completely. So Sylvie stood in the doorway of the office while the robots stood behind her in the hall shaking with terror at the sight of Kayla's power.

"Kayla," Sylvie said calmly but sternly. "You need to snap out of it right now! You are acting insane."

"_So what_ if I am?!" Kayla replied in an insane shriek. "We are in a mad place, Sylvie. Isn't it logical that we should go a little mad ourselves? You know, just embrace the crazy and have some fun? Let out our aggression on this hell hole? This place is full of demons, Sylvie. I can feel it. What better way is there to fight it than taking it all out on this place just so she understands how horrible she is? I can't forget her voice! I can't forget that cruel voice! Oh, God! How does Chell live with the nightmares? How can she live with that cruel voice inside of her mind?"

"You are better than that, Kayla. You know there are better ways to handle this. We can't let her make us insane or let her get to us now. We can't act crazy like this. Please, there's no point to this. Would you please stop? You are scaring me."

Kayla's eyes closed and her face started to fill with tears as she dropped everything immediately and flew down and sat on the office chair with her head hanging down.

Sylvie wished that Chelsea was there. She was so much better with these kinds of situations. Sylvie did not know what to say. She was much better with machines than she was with people. Sylvie was the type of woman who would spend hours a day inside her room working on machines and be content never having contact with any other person. How did God expect her to handle this? Nonetheless, she knew she had to try.

"Kayla, what is the matter? What is wrong with you?" Sylvie asked.

"I did what Aunt C told me not to do. I let her into my mind and went crazy with anger," Kayla said bowing her head and crying a little. "I screwed everything up again."

Sylvie walked in and the three robots stood silently in the hall still in fear of Kayla's power. Sylvie crouched down and gave Kayla a hug. She let Kayla cry for a while because she did not know what else to say.

Then, she had an idea.

Sylvie said, "Kayla, when I was a little girl, I was bullied by other kids at school because I was more interested in machines and technology than I was in people. They also disliked the fact that I had powers. They all thought I was a weird freak. Their words hurt, and there were days when I would go home crying. On those days, my parents would sit me down and remind me that all those means words were lies of the devil meant to tear me down. To combat those lies, my parents would ask me to talk about each insult that the kids gave and they would tell me why those words weren't true, so that when I returned to school, I would be able to defend myself more effectively. I want to try that with you. It might sound stupid to you, but it might also help. I know what it's like to be bullied, and I know that what they say can make you feel insane unless you are willing to talk about it. How about you give me chance?"

Sylvie stopped hugging her, and Kayla moved her chair back. Kayla looked at Sylvie and did not say a word, but she nodded.

"Okay," Sylvie began. "Lie number one, your parents never cared about you."

"You know that I don't believe that one. For crying out loud, I have told you about the only memory I have of my mother at least one hundred times. I know my parents loved me," said Kayla.

"Alright then, we will move on to lie number two. Do you really think that you are a useless cripple? Do you feel like you need to prove yourself in order to be taken seriously?"

"No, of course not. Maybe. Yes!" Kayla said tearing up again.

"Why would you think that?"

"Look at me, Sylvie. I have no arms or legs and without telekinesis I would be helpless. I know that people in the congregation look down on me as weak, and I don't want to be seen as weak or helpless. I want to be a contributing member of the group. I want to help! I'm afraid no man will ever fall for me either because of how weird I look. What am I saying? Think of the situation we are in. This is so stupid. I shouldn't be worried about this now."

"I know how you feel, but you cannot bury your emotions. They have to be felt or else they will make you suffer later. Also, forget about what GLaDOS says. She is just like any other bully. You have to remember the truth to combat the lies, or else the devil will win."

"That's easy for you to say. You're beautiful, _and_ you have a boyfriend."

Kayla was referring to Hugo who was in fact Sylvie's boyfriend.

The three robots were still standing in the hall and watching the scene unfold.

The blue-eyed turret that was still in Atlas's arms asked, "What is a boyfriend?"

Atlas looked at P-Body who just shrugged.

After a moment of silence, Sylvie smiled and then said, "That does not mean I don't hear the mean voices of the other kids in my head. I still hear them calling me weird and telling me that I will always be an unlovable freak. You don't think that hurts? GLaDOS's words will always hurt you too unless you find a truth to combat them with."

Kayla responded with silence.

"The first truth is this," Sylvie began. "Nobody thinks you're weak."

"Really?" Kayla asked in skepticism. "Is that really true?"

"Yes, and even if they did, that would not make you a weak person. Having no arms or legs does not make you less of a person. If anything, you are stronger than most people because you have had to deal with a challenge that most people have never had to deal with and you are always so optimistic and encouraging in spite of it. Being a strong person comes from the soul, not from physical circumstances, and in your soul, you are very strong, Kayla. That may sound cheesy, but it's true."

Kayla smiled and began tearing up.

"I don't know why God made you this way, Kayla, but you are still special in His eyes," Sylvie said as she put her right hand on her head. "You have never given into hopelessness so don't let some evil piece of metal change your mind now. People will only make you crazy if you let them."

"You're right!" Kayla shouted in joy. "I _am_ strong on the inside and anyone who can't see that is a loser."

Kayla flew up in joy.

Sylvie stood up and sank into the chair in fatigue. She was not used to doing this type of thing for anyone except for Hugo, and even then, she usually just listened to him and brought in Chelsea for back up sometimes while he rambled on about whatever. Sylvie would pipe in with words every now and again but almost never full on advice. She could not believe that she had just pulled something like this off. This rescue mission was taking everything in her. She inwardly thanked God for the fact that she did not have to find strength in herself.

"How did I do?" Sylvie asked in insecurity. "You know I have no experience in this type of thing. Chelsea would have done better."

"Not really," Kayla said to reassure her. "She's better at listening than she is at giving advice. I think you did great. Thank you!"

Sylvie responded with a weary smile. She wanted this mission to be over so she could go back home and go back to her workshop where she did not have to interact with anyone. She was already exhausted.

"Anyways," Kayla began. "Where do we sleep? I want to go back to sleep."

"Come on," Sylvie said as she got up.

Then turning to P-Body, she asked, "Do you remember the way back?"

P-Body nodded and walked ahead. They followed him.

Atlas was still carrying the turret who was staring at Sylvie with his dark blue eye. Sylvie stared back at him thoughtfully.

"Atlas, you can put down the turret now," Sylvie said. "You can walk. Can't you, little guy?"

"No," the turret said sadly. "I can't move."

"That's right. I remember now. You can't. Let me fix you."

The group stopped for a minute as Sylvie got to work. She motioned for Atlas to put the turret down. Once he did, she got on her knees and touched the turret on the head. She telepathically commanded the turret's legs to unlock so that he could move. The little turret was overjoyed as he moved his three legs for the first time in his life.

"Hooray!" the turret said as he jumped up and down. "I can move! I can move! I can move!"

The turret ran around and around the group before he walked up to Sylvie and wrapped his right leg around her leg in a hug as he looked up into her eyes.

"Thank you," the turret said as his bottom eye shield pulled up into a smile.

"You're welcome," Sylvie said as she rubbed her right hand against his head.

It was at that moment that she began to realize that her life could never be normal again. God was bringing another mission into her mind as she looked into that turret's eye.

Sylvie got up and the group resumed their walk back to their hiding place. In a short amount of time, they got back to the staff lounge where they were hiding before. Kayla collapsed on top of the couch, P-Body and Atlas sat in their chairs, Sylvie leaned against the wall, and the turret stood in front of her.

She smiled. This turret was so cute now that he wasn't trying to kill her. She couldn't resist stroking his head.

"You need a name," Sylvie said.

"Name him Killer," said Kayla sarcastically as she was lying on the couch and trying to fall asleep. "Also, could you turn off the lights?"

"I think I'll call you Alpha," Sylvie said as she telepathically made the lights turn off.

"Alpha?" asked the turret.

"Do you like it?" Sylvie asked.

"Yes!" the turret said jumping up and down.

"Alright then, your name is Alpha," Sylvie said.

"Alpha! Alpha! Alpha!" he said jumping up and down.

"Will you be quiet?" Kayla asked. "I'm trying to sleep."

"Sorry," Alpha said timidly.

Just then, Atlas beeped in with a question.

"I'm calling him Alpha because he is the first of many," Sylvie replied stroking the turret. "I plan on winning over many more turrets. We will need all the help we can get if we want to take down GLaDOS. Besides, I cannot leave them. They need to be freed just as much as the people below us do."

"Wait a second? You can understand them?" Kayla said as she sat up in amazement.

"Yes, I can," Sylvie replied. "I can read their minds so I can understand what they are trying to say. Speaking of which…"

Sylvie walked up to P-Body, held his hand, and said, "Thank you for defending me in front of GLaDOS. I owe you my life. You didn't tell her where I was even when it would have saved your own skin. Thank you so much!"

Then turning to Atlas as well, she said, "I know that what you're doing is hard. You two are giving up your lives completely for a life that you aren't even that sure about, but I promise that you won't regret it. I will give you and all the turrets we can save a better life, and you two will be my friends for as long as I live."

"What about me?" Alpha asked. "Can I be your friend, too?"

"Yes, Alpha," Sylvie said. "You can be my friend, too."

"Hooray!" Alpha said as he skipped up to her and gave her a hug.

In response, P-Body rose and gave her a hug, too. Atlas walked over and did the same.

Kayla was still watching from the couch.

"That happened fast," she said yawning. "How did you guys get together anyway? What happened after we got separated?"

"I thought that you wanted to go to sleep," Sylvie said breaking the hug.

"I can sleep later. I want to hear your story."

"Alright," Sylvie said as she began to tell her story.

Meanwhile underground among the relaxation vaults, a lone man with a portal gun could be seen wandering around trying to avoid detection. It was Brandon. Since Zaki had informed him of the present situation, he had been wandering around these vaults that were all stored together for the past 24 hours. He was looking for any of his friends that he could find but mostly for his father. Brandon walked through relaxation vault after relaxation vault in order to find people but he kept running only into countless empty rooms.

He was really getting frustrated. He was phasing through wall after wall into room after room just to find them empty. All Brandon could do was pray for help. He just wanted to find his father or anyone really. He wanted to help them so they could help him save his best friend, Chelsea. She was in real trouble. That robot wanted to use her to carry out twisted genetic experiments. Brandon was not going to let that happen. He did not want GLaDOS to hurt her or anyone else, but in order to make any progress in either of those goals, he had to find people. He prayed for success in this endeavor. He prayed that his father was alright, too.

Finally, Brandon phased into a room to see someone in a relaxation vault just next to the vault he was now in. He walked closer through the wall of the box and into the next room in order to get a closer look at the stasis pod. He could not believe his blessing. It was his Dad! He was so relieved to look upon the face that looked just like his except for the mustache and the beard. Roscoe was a proud southerner at heart and was dressed like he normally would when he and Brandon went hunting for deer. He was wearing black army boots, a camouflage shirt, jeans, and a big hunting jacket.

Brandon stood over the stasis pod and asked, "Dad?"

Roscoe did not give Brandon a response but continued sleeping.

Brandon then yelled at the vault while hitting the top of it, "Dad, can you hear me?! Dad, wake up please! Dad!"

After getting no response, he phased through the stasis pod and pulled his father out of it resting his body on the floor.

"Dad?" he asked. "Dad, can you hear me?"

Roscoe finally began to stir and regain consciousness.

"Dad!" Brandon yelled. "Thank God! Dad, are you okay?"

Roscoe opened his eyes and sat up. After blinking his eyes several times to clear his vision, he looked over his son.

"Am I okay?" Roscoe asked. "I should be asking you that question, son. Lord have mercy! You look like you lost a fight with a lawn mower."

Brandon was in rough shape. His clothes had some holes in them, and he had some bruises and scratches on his face from testing. Brandon laughed in relief in response and stood up.

"I'm fine, Dad, but now we have to…" Brandon said.

"No," said Roscoe as he stood up. "We are not doing anything until I heal your wounds."

"Dad…" Brandon said in protest.

"Hold still," Roscoe said as he lifted his hands to his son's head.

Instantly upon Roscoe's touch, Brandon's wounds began to heal. His bruises faded to reveal normal colored skin. His scratches closed. Even the scars from the blood tests and IVs and laser burns on his arms were cooled and healed. Brandon's soreness went away, too. He felt a great deal better.

"Thank you, Dad," Brandon said. "Are _you_ alright?"

"Brandon, I just got knocked out with gas, but I can't get injured," Roscoe said as his lips curled into a wry smile. "Why are you asking this question?"

Roscoe could not only heal others, but he was immune to injury or illness. If he got hurt, he could heal himself instantly. No part of his body internally or externally could stay hurt. Remembering all of this, Brandon realized that a question like that was probably really stupid.

Brandon looked up at the corner of the room. There was a camera. It was hanging limp because it was off. However, he knew that the demonic eye could be watching at any time so he knew that they had to go.

"Dad, she could be watching us at any time," Brandon said sternly. "We have to go!"

"Agreed!" Roscoe said. "Let's go!"

Brandon grabbed his Dad's hand and they ran through the walls. They phased through wall after wall after wall without stopping. Brandon did not want to stop. He was afraid of the yellow eye that could be watching.

Brandon and Roscoe ran until they phased through the final wall and reached the walkway grating outside of it. Brandon smiled as he remembered what Chell had said about these places. GLaDOS could not see them there. They would be safe. Brandon let go of his Dad's hand and leaned back against the wall to catch his breath. The hallway was dark except for the yellow light on the wall that lit it up. Looking around, Brandon could see through the pathway to the bottomless pits below. He sank down to the ground in exhaustion. Roscoe sat down next to him on his left under the light.

"Son, what is that thing on your hand?" Roscoe asked gesturing to the portal gun that Brandon was still carrying around with him on his right hand.

"This is a portal gun," said Brandon.

Roscoe's face became stern.

"Do you mean to tell me that GLaDOS made you test?" Roscoe asked.

Brandon nodded and said, "Where do you think I got my injuries from?"

Roscoe said, "I need to know what has happened to you since I last saw you."

Brandon gave a heavy sigh and then began to talk.

"Dad, it is all my fault," Brandon said. "When Chelsea and I arrived, we didn't know where we were, but she had a bad feeling about it. I insisted that we stayed. We went through some desks and found pens and pencils, but Chelsea was worried about Chell. So, I told her we would just fly through the place to give it a quick look through and come back another time. When we were flying around, Chelsea figured out where we were, but by the time she told me, it was too late."

"That's when you ran into GLaDOS?" Roscoe asked.

Brandon nodded and then continued.

"It was terrifying, Dad," Brandon said. "GLaDOS had been watching us and listening to us the whole time. Chelsea got pissed off and couldn't control her anger. She got off one of GLaDOS's claws and made her angry."

"She would," Roscoe said with a smile.

"That was when GLaDOS struck back. She electrocuted her, and she was too weak to move. I tried to get close to Chelsea, but GLaDOS put dozens of turrets in my way. I phased through them, but she must have knocked me out or something because the next thing I remember is waking up in the relaxation vault at the beginning of the test chambers yesterday. I heard the voice of GLaDOS telling me that I had been out for three and a half weeks, she was interested in my powers, she had tested my blood to find the source of my powers, and she wanted me to test so that she could see more of my gifts at work. I demanded her to tell me what she had done with Chelsea. All she would tell me is that she was with her and that I would see her if I carried out the tests. That robot is clever, Dad. She put me in chambers that I couldn't phase through. They were suspended in the air. I tested until I figured out how to escape. I did that by climbing through the elevator shaft. Zaki told me that Chelsea helped me. She broke the monitor that GLaDOS was using to watch me and gave me enough time to escape. I've been wandering through here to find you or anyone ever since."

Brandon put his head in his hands.

"Dad, Zaki told me about Chelsea," he said. "That monster has hurt her and she plans on hurting her even more."

Roscoe was instantly concerned. Chelsea was like a niece to him. He was her godfather.

"What's wrong with her? What did Zaki say?" Roscoe asked calmly with an apprehensive look on his face.

"Zaki said that GLaDOS has been conducting invasive medical examinations on her," Brandon said. "He said when Chelsea talked to him she sounded weak even though she was trying to be strong. She tried to escape from GLaDOS but was caught because she was too weak to make the trip. She was coughing up blood, Dad. Zaki, Chell, and Pastor Roberts tried to save her, but GLaDOS threw outside while Kayla and Sylvie were left behind. When Zaki saw Chelsea, he said she looked awful. She had lost about 20 pounds in weight, she was covered in bandages, and she looked really thin. Yet in spite of all that she still helped me escape and she had the strength to challenge GLaDOS. Dad, she is only alive by the grace of God. It is all my fault. I made her come into this place! She could die, and her blood would be on my hands!"

Roscoe wrapped his arm around his son and tried to console him.

"Son, Chelsea is not mad at you, God is not mad at you, and I am not mad at you, so quit throwing a pity party!" Roscoe said. "It's not like you willingly delivered her into danger. You're right about one thing, though. Chelsea's life _is_ in danger. Losing 20 pounds within three and a half weeks is not healthy. Even on a diet, no one should lose more than 4 pounds a week. At the rate Chelsea has been losing weight, she might starve to death. That tells me two things. Either that robot has no idea what she's doing or she is starving Chelsea on purpose."

Brandon seethed with anger at that response.

He said, "That is not even the worst of it, Dad. GLaDOS has learned some things about Chelsea that make her different from other mutants. It turns out that she got her powers because of the radiation that Chell was exposed to while she was testing here, specifically from the hard light bridges. GLaDOS wants to impregnate Chelsea after testing her to see if other mutants could be born the same way."

Roscoe's jaw dropped wide open and said, "What? She can't be serious."

"You want to know what else?" Brandon asked turning away from his Dad. "GLaDOS was going to make me the father."

"Oh," Roscoe said with an awkward look on his face as he pulled his arm out from behind his son.

"Yeah," Brandon said.

A very awkward silence ensued. After a few moments, Roscoe was the first to speak up.

"Well!" Roscoe began. "I'm glad you escaped then. Brandon, I know that you might have feelings for Chelsea, but let me tell you from personal experience that the worst way to make a woman marry you is having a child through wedlock."

Under normal circumstances, Brandon appreciated his father's sense of humor, but during that time, he was annoyed by it. He was very upset by the events of the last several weeks.

"Dad, how can you say that? Do you regret having me?" Brandon asked.

"Son," Roscoe began. "There are a lot of things in my life that I have done that I have regretted doing. I regret letting my parents talk me into medical school instead of becoming a tattoo artist full time. I regret moving in with my crazy uncle in Reno for my internship after my graduation from medical school. I regret using my wealthy family's money to party and drink. I regret falling in love with Cholita the Prostitute. I regret giving her everything that she wanted just so that she wouldn't leave my insecure self alone. I regret letting her bully me and others with her super strength and domineering personality. I regret living in sin with her and not having us tie the knot until after you were conceived. I regret getting hitched in that god awful Chapel of Love. That place smelled like weed. I regret partying, living it up, and leaving you to nannies while you were really small."

Roscoe looked thoughtful for a minute.

Then he continued, "I do not regret moving to Detroit to work in the same hospital with Zaki who as you know was my best friend in college before I went to medical school. That was a good decision. I regret lying to him about what I and Cholita were doing. I regret ignoring you and not standing up to your mother more in order to spend time with you. I regret the way I treated Jesus, Pastor Roberts, and Christianity before I learned what it all really meant. Once I did learn what it meant and accepted Jesus as my Savior, I regret not standing up to your mother right away."

"Well, she was a bully and you were still insecure," Brandon said.

"That's no excuse. I should have been a man. She never really loved me. I should have known that. She just liked being the wife of a rich doctor. Once I did stand up to her and told her that I wasn't going to live the life she wanted anymore, she left without saying a word to me or you. I regret everything about that relationship. However Brandon, I have never ever regretted having you. You are one of the best things that has ever happened to me in my life, and I never want you to think otherwise. I just regret that you were conceived in sin by a prostitute and a spineless rich kid."

Brandon smiled and said, "There are worse things in life than being the illegitimate son of a prostitute, Dad."

Roscoe replied, "Yes, you could have been the child of a politician."

The two of them shared a good laugh, and then Brandon stood up.

"The situation is not entirely hopeless, Dad," Brandon said. "Zaki said that he, Chell, and Pastor Roberts are going to rescue everyone who is trapped here and then all of us are going to kill GLaDOS. I personally want to be there to help them carry it out. I want to save Chelsea, too. I just hope that that bitch doesn't kill her before we can get to her."

Roscoe stood up, too.

"GLaDOS isn't going to kill Chelsea, Brandon," Roscoe said. "She is going to do everything she can to keep her alive to carry out her experiments. It is in her interest to keep Chelsea alive. Nevertheless, we need to get out of here and help her and everyone else however we can."

Brandon turned to leave, but Roscoe grabbed his shoulder and wrapped Brandon in a hug.

"I missed you, son," Roscoe said. "I was so scared when they told me that you had been kidnapped. I thought I would never see you again. I'm really glad you're alright."

Brandon hugged him back and said, "Same here. I love you too, Dad."

Roscoe then took the opportunity to give his a loving headlock.

"Dad, let go of me!" Brandon exclaimed in surprise.

Roscoe then promptly let go and walked forward.

"What are you dawdling around for, city boy?" Roscoe said. "We've got a mission to complete. Come on!"

Brandon smiled and walked after his Dad.


	6. Chapter 6

Meanwhile, Sylvie had finished telling her story and Kayla was on the floor with the iPhone plugged in trying to sleep on top of a few cushions that Atlas and P-Body had generously given up from their chairs. She used her backpack as a pillow and had a blanket pulled on top of her head with her head phones plugged in. Kayla was having trouble sleeping because of Alpha. He had not stopped asking Sylvie questions since she finished telling the story. The lights were off, and Sylvie was trying to sleep on the couch yet Alpha would not stop asking questions. Sylvie was kindly and patiently trying to explain everything he wanted to know but was too gentle to tell him to stop. Kayla was really annoyed. Atlas and P-Body were at their wits' end, too. They all kept giving Sylvie pleading looks to make Alpha shut up. This went on for about two hours.

"What is knowledge?" asked Alpha.

"It is the state of knowing," replied Sylvie.

"What is...?" Alpha began.

"Sylvie, shut him up!" interrupted Kayla finally. "We need to sleep."

Atlas and P-Body made pleading noises.

"Alright, alright, alright," Sylvie conceded. "You may ask me one more question, Alpha."

Everyone else groaned. Kayla pulled the blanket above her head telekinetically. Atlas face palmed and P-Body put his hands on his head.

"Calm down," Sylvie said to them rubbing the turret's head. "He doesn't mean anything bad by it. He's just a curious little turret. Okay Alpha, ask me one more question and then you need to stand by the door and shoot anything that tries to get in here that is not human."

Alpha thought for a minute about his final question for the night. Then, it came to him like a bolt of lightning.

"What is a boyfriend?" Alpha asked.

All of a sudden, P-Body and Atlas were paying attention, too. This was a question that they did not know the answer to.

Sylvie thought for a minute on how to answer. How could she explain something like this to creatures that evidently did not have any concept of romance?

Kayla sat up and pulled out her headphones. She wanted to hear how Sylvie would explain this, too.

Sylvie lay on top of the couch saying nothing for about a minute. Then she finally sat up because she knew what to say.

"A boyfriend is a man in a woman's life that wants to be more than her friend. A true friend always loves you and supports you even though they may leave your side, but a boyfriend is a man who wants to love and support her and never leave her side. He wants to love her and possibly become a husband to care for her and be there for her by her side for the rest of his life. It is one step towards a lifetime commitment of love and service. You get it?"

Alpha and P-Body beeped in affirmation as Alpha pulled his lower eye shield into a smile.

"That is so beautiful. I will go to guard the door now," said Alpha as he walked towards the door and stood in front of it turning his red laser sensor on.

"Thank God!" Kayla said as she collapsed on top of her cushions pulling the blanket on top of her head.

The other two robots sat back in their chairs and shut their eyes. Everyone fell asleep except for Sylvie. She lay awake reminiscing about her boyfriend Hugo. Sylvie did not let onto it, but she was worried about him.

Hugo and Sylvie's romance may be considered a bit bizarre. For one thing, it took a while to get started. Hugo and Albina found the survivors when he was fifteen and Albina was seven. The two had found their way to the Lambda Base after their parents were killed. The troops took them to the hotel because they knew that they would be safe with Pastor Roberts. Hugo was surly and withdrawn while Albina was more ready to open up to others for support. It took Hugo a while to open up to the rest of the group, but he had taken to Sylvie right away. He thought that she was the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. Sylvie was twenty years old at that point and very shy around most people. She was friendly towards Hugo but did not spend much time with him and was definitely not interested in him. She was five years older than him. Hugo wanted to approach her, but he did not know how. He was withdrawn and depressed, so he loved her from a distance.

Then little Chelsea came along. Chelsea was not scared away by Hugo's rough and silent demeanor. She never learned to be afraid of talking to anybody. She talked to him when he was not ready to talk. Hugo generally saw her as an annoying kid and wanted her to go away at first, but she did not give up. Chelsea was determined to befriend him so she did. She read books about Africa and continually pestered him with questions about the place. Hugo did not mind that. He was homesick and it made him feel good to talk about Le Cote d'Ivoire. It made him feel good to relive his memories. As Chelsea got older, she enjoyed talking more and more about deeper topics. Hugo did not mind that either. It was relieving for him to talk about the deep things he felt and the philosophical questions that they did not completely understand. It was conversations like this one that led Hugo to join in the faith. It led Hugo to come out of his shell with the other members of the congregation, especially Chelsea and her parents. Hugo grew close to Chelsea and grew to see her as a little sister. He was actually closer to her than he was to Albina, his own stepsister. Chelsea often had to be the mediator between the disputes those two had. They cared about each other underneath it all, but they had a hard time getting along. Hugo was annoyed by Albina's confidence and attitude while Albina would be offended by Hugo's bluntness. However, as good as Hugo and Chelsea's friendship was, it did not bring him much closer to Sylvie who he still loved from a distance but did not know how to approach. Sylvie was also unaware of his feelings. She still spent a great deal of time by herself with machines and would only really reach out to Chell and her family because she felt like they understood her.

Then one day, Hugo told her that a miracle happened. When Chelsea was thirteen, she came up to Hugo speaking French, the official language of Le Cote d'Ivoire, a language that he had not heard in years. Hugo was overjoyed and asked where she learned it. She told him that she had been learning it from Sylvie since she was really young. Chelsea also told him that Sylvie was born in France and Chelsea wanted to learn the language. The conversation between them according to Hugo then went something like this.

"Hugo, you should speak French with Sylvie. You could get practice and I could listen and keep learning from you guys. Please!" Chelsea said.

"I don't know about that, Chelsea," said Hugo. "We don't know each other that well. Wouldn't that be kind of awkward?"

"Why? Is it because you like her?"

"No."

"I know that you do. I see how you look at her. This would be a great opportunity for you two to get together."

"Chelsea…."

"Come on. I'm going back again for some more lessons. Just come with me. I think she would enjoy having someone to speak French to who is more fluent than me for a change. Come on, dude! Please!"

Hugo eventually agreed and Chelsea brought him to her French lesson with Sylvie. The two of them could speak French fluently where Chelsea was taking a while to get really good at it. However, it was awkward at first. Their dialects were different so Hugo made himself adjust so she could understand him and Sylvie had to speak slowly so Hugo could understand her. Even then, it was still awkward for a while. They would only talk about shallow things like the weather or whatever. Then as they got more comfortable with each other, they began to talk about deeper topics. Hugo admired Sylvie for her intelligence and her gentleness, and Sylvie started to fall for Hugo's understanding and the deep way he thought about everything. She also began to notice that he treated her differently than the other girls and that she was beginning to understood him better than anyone else besides Chelsea of course. He could be so dark and brooding, but Sylvie saw that he had suffered through a great deal of sorrow. She understood his pain because she had lost her parents as well. They understood each other very well. Sylvie also saw that he had a kind side to him. Her friendship helped bring that out. He was able to begin to let go of his sorrow. Hugo helped her come out of her shell more, too. He also inspired her to believe that life was too short to not experience the world. After about a year, the pair decided to date and then go steady, which made Chelsea very happy.

Their relationship was very good. They both understood each other, loved each other, and made each other even better as people as a result. Neither of them was perfect. Hugo could be annoyingly emotional, and Sylvie could be distant. Nonetheless, they persevered and had been together as boyfriend and girlfriend for four years. They were talking about getting married.

Sylvie smiled. If they got married, she wanted Chelsea be the maid of honor because she had played a significant role in both their lives while Chell would be the matron of honor since she was her best friend. Then, her face grew downcast. She knew GLaDOS was experimenting on Chelsea. Sylvie also knew that Hugo was still captured while Zaki, Chell, and Pastor Roberts were still trying to break into the facility. She prayed for all of them and for their safety. She wanted them all to be alright. In her sadness, Sylvie shut her eyes and fell asleep.

The sun rose the next morning on the face of Kayla. She woke up, but she telekinetically pulled the blinds shut and tried to fall back asleep. It was only six o'clock in the morning. Kayla tried to sleep for about another hour but she just could not fight her natural early riser tendencies. So, she tried to find something to do until she could fall asleep.

Suddenly, a mischievous idea came to her. Kayla telekinetically picked through her backpack quietly until she found what she was looking for. Kayla pulled out some black lipstick that she found at the art supply store that she and Chelsea went to. Then, she flew over Sylvie who was sleeping on the couch. She took her lipstick and doodled on Sylvie's face.

"What are you doing?" said Alpha who was still guarding the door.

"Be quiet," whispered Kayla. "I'm just having some fun."

The turret walked over to watch her work. He couldn't suppress a giggle.

"Hush!" Kayla whispered. "You'll wake them up."

"Sorry," Alpha whispered.

Kayla continued her work. Once she was done on Sylvie's face, she moved on to Atlas's face then to P-Body's face. Kayla flashed a large smile as she finished. She was very proud of her work. Kayla then unplugged her iPhone, set it on silence, and then took a picture of her work. She then took a picture of herself and the turret hovering in front of the window while she held up the lipstick.

Kayla then telekinetically lowered them until they were sitting on Kayla's bed. Alpha snuggled next to her with his head resting against hers as she sat on her bed. Kayla smiled in response.

"You know, little guy, you aren't so bad," Kayla whispered.

"Could you draw something on me?" the turret asked not wanting to be left out.

"Sure," Kayla said as she picked him up and moved him in front of her.

She drew a heart on his left side. When she was done, she took a picture of it and showed it to him so he could see it.

"I like it," Alpha said. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Kayla said. "I'm going to try to sleep some more."

"Okay," Alpha whispered.

Kayla lay back down on her bed. The turret walked back to the door to guard it some more.

Kayla shut her eyes and went back to sleep for about another hour. An hour later, Sylvie woke up. She walked to the bathroom quietly without waking the others. Sylvie was only half-awake when she looked in the mirror. She had clown lips and round circles doodled around her eyes. She let out a shriek and woke up everyone in the room.

"KAYLA!" Sylvie screamed.

Kayla woke up with a start and looked at Sylvie.

"Is this what you call a joke?" Sylvie said pointing to her face.

"What can I say?" Kayla said while laughing. "I got really bored and had nothing else to do."

Kayla continued laughing. P-Body and Atlas did the same thing. Sylvie then turned towards Atlas and P-Body and started laughing. P-Body and Atlas went suddenly silent.

"Why are you two laughing? You look even dumber than I do," Sylvie said as she stopped laughing and crossed her arms.

They walked to the bathroom and gave out shrieks of their own. They looked even funnier than she did. Atlas had a monocle doodled around his eye and a moustache doodled under his eye. P-Body had an eye patch doodled around his eye and a pirate beard doodled underneath his eye. Nevertheless, after the initial shock, they both laughed at each other. Sylvie was laughing, too.

"I'm glad you're back to your old mischievous self again, Kayla," Sylvie said wiping tears from her eyes.

Kayla smiled in response.

"However," Sylvie began with a mischievous smile of her own. "I think that a little payback is order. What do you think, guys?"

Atlas and P-Body both gave beeps of approval.

"Get her," Sylvie said.

"No!" Kayla screamed.

She tried to fly up in the air, but P-Body and Atlas each grabbed one side of her and weighed her down.

Sylvie walked up to her holding the black lipstick that Kayla had dropped on the floor. Sylvie stood in front of her and drew glasses around her eyes and swirls on her cheeks. When she was done, she looked over her work and smiled.

"Okay, boys! You can let her go now," Sylvie said.

Atlas and P-Body let go of her and Kayla flew straight into the bathroom to take a look. She wasn't really mad. She figured that she deserved it anyway. Alpha turned around and watched in amusement.

All she did was smile and say, "Well-played, you guys! Well-played!"

The four of them laughed for a solid two minutes straight. After all the stress that they had been going through, it was something they sorely needed. Kayla was always good at helping people feel happy and optimistic. The two women felt happier and somehow knew that they would be alright. P-Body and Atlas felt better, too. They were both entering into a life that they had never known away from everything they had always known. They were scared, but Kayla was helping them realize that they were making the right decision. The robots had never been happier in their entire lives.

After they had finished laughing, the two ladies took turns in the bathroom washing off their faces. They then worked together to wash the lipstick of the robots' faces. Then once they finished that, Sylvie and Kayla decided to do devotions and pray together. The three robots listened in and began to learn about the God that they were talking about. It was not something that they really knew much about but they all followed along as well as they possibly could. Sylvie knew what that they were interested but decided not to explain it all right away. She knew it was a big truth for a robot to learn, so it would take a great deal of time to explain. Besides that, she did not have much faith in her ability to explain their beliefs. Sylvie explained what they were doing, but that was about it. They had work to do so Sylvie figured that she could explain the rest later when she had time to think about how to do it better.

Anyways, after that, Kayla decided to prepare breakfast.

"Hey, guys! Guess what I have for breakfast?" Kayla said in a rather musical tone as she picked through her backpack.

She pulled potatoes one by one from her backpack.

"We have potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, and potatoes, so if you want variety, we got variety," Kayla said sarcastically.

"Where did you find all those potatoes, Kayla?" Sylvie asked.

"I found them growing in a bathroom."

"Really?"

"Yeah, they're from Aunt C.'s science fair project when she was in elementary school. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah! You could eat that or you could follow me."

Kayla flew behind Sylvie to see what she had up her sleeve.

"You see this, Kayla? This is a food synthesizer," Sylvie said.

"What?" Kayla asked.

Sylvie pushed a button and a blueberry muffin instantly appeared. Kayla's eyes grew huge with excitement.

"Holy freaking crap, Sylvie! This is amazing!" Kayla yelled.

She pulled the muffin to herself telekinetically and instantly began wolfing it down. Kayla had tears of excitement in her eyes.

"This is amazing, Sylvie! Thank God! I've been eating nothing but potatoes or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the last three weeks. This tastes like heaven. I don't know how to thank you. I've never even had one of these before."

Sylvie smiled.

"I'm glad you like it, Kayla," she said.

Sylvie turned away to get food for herself as Kayla looked up suddenly to notice that P-Body, Atlas, and Alpha were all staring at her.

"Sylvie, why the hell are they all staring at me?" Kayla asked nervously.

"They have never really observed human behavior before, so they find the act of eating amazing," Sylvie said while working at the food synthesizer.

Kayla took complete advantage of this opportunity. She over-emphasized every act of eating, so that it was as dramatic as possible. The robots enjoyed the show, and Sylvie almost laughed hard enough to choke on her muffin that she was eating. She actually had to swallow some water. She was glad that Kayla was around.

After Sylvie and Kayla had finished eating, Sylvie spoke up. They needed to make plans.

"I have thought about what we're going to do today," Sylvie said.

Kayla looked up immediately in response.

"I know what we all should do actually," Sylvie said, looking at Kayla who was nodding for her to continue.

"Kayla, you know how you were flying through the vents and labeling everything?" Sylvie asked. "I need you to do that again. You can do that during the day and fly back here at night. You're fast enough for that right?"

"Yes, I think I can do that," Kayla began. "The facility is big, but I'm small enough and fast enough to get around pretty quickly. Besides as I get better at knowing my way around, I should get to know the place better. GLaD Ass can't see inside the vents, right?"

"That's what I'm thinking. We could use the ventilation system to sneak around and go where we need to without getting noticed by her."

"Sylvie, I just thought of something. When I'm in those vents, I can't tell what time of day it is. What happens if I lose track of time?"

"I'll call you. I can call your iPhone. Remember?"

"What do I do if I need to contact you, Sylvie? I can't make calls with this phone."

"Hand me your phone."

Kayla obeyed and telekinetically handed Sylvie the phone. Sylvie studied it for about a minute and finally came up with an idea. She motioned to Atlas to come over and touched his head to the phone once he did. Sylvie configured the iPhone so that it would send out the same type of radio wave signal that Atlas could. It worked. In order to test it out, she pressed the number 1 and Atlas immediately started buzzing. Sylvie smiled, but Kayla was confused.

"What did you just do?" Kayla asked.

"In short, I made it so that your iPhone can make calls now. In order to call me, press 1 and the signal will be sent to Atlas," Sylvie said.

"Have I mentioned that you are incredible?" Kayla said as she took back her phone from Sylvie. "Thank you!"

Looking at Atlas, Sylvie said, "I hope you don't mind being used as a cell phone. We don't really have any other choice right now."

Atlas gave negative beeps to show that he didn't mind.

"What will you be doing while I'm gone?" Kayla asked.

"I'm going to hack into the Aperture Science computer system and gather all the information I can about everything. I'll get the map so that we can find our way and I'll see if I can find any other information that can help us," Sylvie replied.

"That's a good idea," Kayla replied.

"Alright, we will pray and then we will break. Got it?"

"Yes!"

They prayed to God for success and then prepared to part for the day. Kayla put on her black sweatshirt, gathered everything into her backpack, and then broke open the ventilation grating with less effort than before. After doing that, she turned around, wished Sylvie luck, and went on her way. Kayla was careful to label headquarters so that she would remember where it was. Then, she continued to fly down the air ducts.

Meanwhile Sylvie was sitting in the silence and mentally preparing herself for what she was going to do. While she was doing that, Alpha walked up to her and tapped her leg.

"What is it?" Sylvie asked looking down at him.

"My lady, what do you want me to do?" Alpha asked.

"I need you to keep guarding the door. You have been doing a great job so far."

"Okay," said Alpha happily as he walked back to his post.

As Alpha turned to walk back, Sylvie noticed the heart on his left side.

"Alpha, did Kayla draw that heart on you?" she asked.

"Yes," Alpha said turning around.

"Do you want me to clean it off?"

"No, I like it."

"Alright, then," Sylvie said as Alpha turned around and walked back to his post.

Sylvie turned back to Atlas and said, "Are you ready to get back to work?"

Atlas nodded. They were about to get to work when P-Body beeped.

"What can you do?" Sylvie replied. "I don't know. What do you want to do?"

P-Body replied sadly looking at the floor.

"I know you want to be useful, P-Body. I just don't know what you can do."

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.

"Hey! I know. I can use your brain to hack into the system. Atlas, you are already serving as my cell phone anyway. If I use you, I might be too busy to pick up on Kayla's phone signal. I'll just use P-Body to hack into the system. Do you care, Atlas?"

Atlas who really did not care and was slightly annoyed at what he perceived as P-Body being over dramatic just shrugged. Why did P-Body have to make a big deal out of everything?

"Merci, Atlas," Sylvie said as she knelt down and kissed him on the cheek.

Sylvie then got up and walked towards P-Body who was walking very proudly knowing that he was going to be doing something important.

Atlas stood there stunned and held his hand on the spot that Sylvie kissed. He began to feel emotions that he had never felt before. It was something very warm inside his heart. When he looked at Sylvie, he started feeling light and dizzy. These emotions were weird and confusing to him, but Atlas stood there continuing to watch Sylvie with a stupefied and hypnotized air.

Meanwhile Sylvie and P-Body sat on the couch and immediately got to work. Sylvie touched him and used his mind to create a signal that would hack into the Aperture Science computer database without being detected by GLaDOS. With surprisingly little effort, she was able to do it. She guessed that these computers had not had any security updates since before GLaDOS had taken over Aperture. There were so many files in this computer system. For anyone else, it would have taken months to absorb all this information, but for Sylvie, she knew it would only take a few days at the most. She didn't know where to begin and she knew that anything she found could potentially be useful, so she decided that she would just have to look at everything.

Sylvie first looked through files upon files upon files of inventions created by the company. Despite this company's terrible ethics, they really had created many amazing things including the portal gun, the bouncing gel, the propulsion gel, artificially intelligent robots, and probably most impressive of all, GLaDOS. Next she looked through various odds and ends, and these really were odds and ends. There was Cave Johnson's guide on how to spot witches within the company, cake recipes, and even the translated lyrics to the turret opera that GLaDOS had apparently arranged for Chell among other things. She would have to show Chell that later.

After Sylvie had finished looking at these odds and ends, she came across some other things that were not as amusing to say the least. The file said security feed, and she looked into it. Sylvie immediately felt sick, but she knew that she needed to look at everything she could. Sylvie saw normal company business being carried out, and she thought that it wouldn't be so bad. Then she saw the real Aperture, the Aperture that cared nothing for human life. She watched test after test being carried out under Cave Johnson's watch and then eventually under the watch of the other scientists. People died left and right and nobody cared. She could not believe the scientist's callous eyes. Sylvie did not know that people could be that cold. Watching the subjects was even worse. Sylvie felt as if she was watching the Nazis gas people and shove them into ovens.

Sylvie watched people get crushed by crushing plates. She watched others crack their heads open on the wall after running too fast on the propulsion gel. Many people were shot by turrets and bled to death. Other people were hit in the head with an energy pellet. Many people burned alive in the pools of toxic waste. People would also be burned alive by lasers.

To make matters worse, Sylvie knew everything about the test subjects, too. Along with the footage of people dying was their personal information. None of them knew what they were signing up for. They thought they were just participating in science experiments in order to make some easy money. The scientists did not lead them to think otherwise. They told them that they would be fine. How could people be so cruel? How could the scientists lead these people who each had a soul, a life, a family, friends, and a backstory and were each image-bearers of God to their deaths with a clear conscience? Sylvie went through thousands of videos like this one and when she thought it couldn't get any worse it did. GLaDOS was activated, and she watched 30,000 scientists die suffocating from neurotoxins. It was not only the scientists who died but their children, too. She watched thousands of innocent little girls die suffocating from neurotoxin while GLaDOS watched with a callous, not caring eye. She heard them scream and then listened as all the screaming ceased. It was this blow that broke her.

Sylvie broke the transmission. She was hyperventilating and crying. P-Body sat there is shock as she ran into the bathroom and vomited into the toilet. P-Body saw everything that Sylvie saw and felt a horrible realization settle on his heart. The science that he had pursued his whole life was not good. It hurt people, and unlike him, they never recovered. That was what GLaDOS meant when she said that humans were fragile. He knew that people could get hurt but he didn't know how much they really suffered or for them what death really meant. They all could stop existing and end their lives horribly, and that is what the facility had been doing all along. That was what GLaDOS was planning to use Chelsea for and everyone else she could get her hands on for. P-Body felt sick and he only continued to feel sicker.

Atlas sprang into action immediately after Sylvie ran into the bathroom. He held back her hair as she threw up and continued to cry. Alpha stood in the doorway looking concerned.

"What is the matter?" Alpha asked.

Sylvie stopped vomiting and flushed the toilet. She patted Atlas on the back to thank him as she continued to tear up. She walked over to the sink and washed her face. Sylvie then collapsed onto her knees on the floor and cried into her hands. P-Body having seen what she also saw sat against the doorway, held his arm, and looked at the floor in sadness. Atlas sat next to Sylvie and tried to comfort her. Alpha walked in and stood in front of Sylvie.

"What is the matter?" he asked again.

"This place is hell," Sylvie said. "I watched the security feed, and I saw thousands upon thousands of people die. Nobody ever cared. They all just recorded the results and moved on. They treated those people like they were nothing. These people had lives. How could they be murdered like they were just trash? GLaDOS helped them. Then she gassed all the scientists and their little girls. How could anyone be so cruel? Why, God? Why? I saw the life disappear from their eyes. It was horrible! How could anyone just watch someone get murdered like that and feel absolutely nothing?"

Sylvie sobbed for a while. Atlas filled her bottle of water and got her to sit on the couch next to P-Body who in spite of Atlas's best efforts was hardly responsive. After a while, Sylvie began to calm down and sat in silence for a longer time afterwards.

Meanwhile, GLaDOS was in her main chamber talking to a doctor robot. Chelsea was sleeping under the covers of a hospital bed still wearing her red-beaded necklace and a hospital gown but dressed in slightly less bandages. She was also connected to only two IVs this time, one on her left to hydrate her body and the one on her right to pump antibiotics into her body. She still wore an oxygen mask on her face to help her breathe.

GLaDOS pulled the covers off of Chelsea's body and lifted up her hospital gown so that the doctor robot could unwrap the bandages and look at the stitches.

GLaDOS said, "I see what you mean. The stitches are healing much more quickly than before. My hypothesis seems to be right after all. It looks like she will be healing from her wounds a bit quicker than I anticipated. That is just wonderful. If only she didn't still look like she had anorexia."

"She should gain weight again if she continues to improve at this rate," the doctor robot said as he rewrapped the bandages around her body. "In other news, her pneumonia is getting better. It is still running strong, but it's not nearly as ferocious as it was yesterday. That is probably connected to the treatment, too."

"Good," GLaDOS continued as she pulled down the hospital gown and pulled the sheets back over her body. "She will soon be well enough to work."

"For now, we can wake her up whenever you're ready. I gave her some painkillers, so she is too tired and weak to move around and shouldn't cause any problems. Her senses are too dulled. Just don't excite her too much. She might hurt herself if provoked."

"I'll be careful. When will the sedatives wear off?"

"She should be waking up any minute now."

"Excellent, you may leave now, doctor."

As the doctor robot turned to leave, GLaDOS said, "Wait a minute, doctor. Would you give her another dose of painkillers? I am alright with her being drowsy. We just wouldn't want her to have too much energy."

"Of course, ma'am," said the doctor robot.

GLaDOS was happy. She knew that while Chelsea was slightly better she would be still too weak to move. She was not going to try what she did the other day. GLaDOS made sure of it. She was going to be in control of her this time. The doctor robot injected a painkiller into one of Chelsea's IVs and left the room.

Chelsea began stirring under the covers. GLaDOS adjusted the bed to sit up so they could look at each other more easily.

Chelsea opened her eyes. She felt like her mind was draped in a heavy fog. She could see, but her mind took longer to take in her surroundings. She felt like she was barely awake. Chelsea noticed that she was in a hospital bed again with only two IV's this time. She was back in GLaDOS's chamber again and the vents were missing. That fact reminded her of something important.

"Kayla?" she whispered as she looked around.

"Hello," GLaDOS said happily.

Chelsea jumped immediately. It was then that she noticed how sore she was and how much it hurt to breathe. She coughed very painfully.

"What is wrong with me?" Chelsea asked.

"I could write hundreds of books on that subject," GLaDOS said sarcastically.

"Speak for yourself," Chelsea said very weakly at almost a whisper.

"The answer you want is that you have pneumonia. That is why you were coughing up blood the other day. You must have been infected during all the medical examinations I did or from your own stupidity in running around without your IV's in. Either way, you are sick now and we have to administer you antibiotics to keep you alive. I just hope we don't have to put off testing for even longer than planned. Hopefully, that will not be the case and you will get better soon. The waiting process is new for me since I am keeping you alive instead of throwing you out like anyone else but it will be completely worth it. The science will be beautiful."

"What's wrong with you? How can you say that? Don't _I_ matter more than science? Doesn't _anyone's _life matter more than science?"

"No, science is the most important thing, patient. A true scientist must put science above all else no matter what the consequences might be. They must pursue science for science's sake. You wouldn't understand that because you are not a scientist."

"You're not a scientist!" Chelsea yelled as she sat up in bed. "You are just insane. If you were truly a good scientist, you would care more about doing things to help other people than you would about getting your pointless results. But I guess you don't know what that means. Do you? You're just a wicked fool who is using science as a cover up to…"

Chelsea immediately fell into a violent fit of coughing from over-exerting herself. GLaDOS hovered over her speechless. She was stunned by this girl who was trying to stand up for the truth even in her weak state. She had never seen a human this preachy or this determined to be preachy. It was really quite amazing.

After Chelsea coughed painfully for a solid minute, GLaDOS decided that she would intervene.

"Breathe slowly. In and out," GLaDOS said to her calmly.

Chelsea ignored her and continued to cough.

"Look, I know you don't trust me," GLaDOS began. "I know you think that I'm out to get you because of how I treated your mother. You think I feel the same way about you that I felt about her but you're wrong. I didn't care whether your mother lived or died except when I needed her. It made no difference to me. Science would get done either way. I do however care about whether you live or die. I need you to stay alive for the sake of the work that I am doing. Remember? If you died, that science would never happen. So, when I talk to you like this, you can trust me because you know I am only trying to help you live. Now, let go of your pride and listen to me."

Chelsea looked up at her.

"Take deep breaths now. Breathe in," GLaDOS said. "And out."

Chelsea obeyed.

"In and out. In and out. In and out...There, you go. Just keep breathing."

After a few minutes of breathing like that, Chelsea regained her ability to breathe. She also began to feel fear creep back over her. She had never felt as sick as she did then. Because of Roscoe, she never had really known what it was to be sick or have this much trouble breathing. Chelsea prayed for strength in her mind because she felt like she was going to die.

"Now," GLaDOS said happily. "On to business."

Chelsea looked up.

"Business?" she said quietly.

"Aperture Science has a policy of respecting the religious beliefs of our test subjects," GLaDOS said as Chelsea laid back into her bed. "We are dedicated to doing whatever we can to make sure your beliefs are respected."

"Really?" Chelsea asked skeptically.

"Yes, and I couldn't help but notice your reluctance to participate in the experiment, especially in the part about having a child. So, I did some research and found out that Christians do not believe in having children out of wedlock and I have come up with a proposal that will respect your religious beliefs. We will get you married before you're inseminated."

Chelsea was speechless for a moment before she responded.

"What?!" Chelsea managed to get out.

"Yes, that way your beliefs will be respected," GLaDOS said in a tone that was completely serious. "However, before you're married, you must consent to a mate first since that is also a part of your belief system. Thanks to you, your friend has escaped, and since I have not been able to find him yet we can't use him. So, in the meantime, we need to choose someone else for you before we get the wedding planning started. I thought that since this is such a big decision you would like to pick him out for yourself so how about I show you some photographs of the other test subjects and let you pick him out?"

"You cannot be serious."

"I am completely serious. I even looked through some old files and found the marriage certificates of two former employees, whited out the names that were written there, and photocopied them to get two blank certificates. You can sign one, he can sign the other, and you will be married. Then that will be that. You don't have to worry about planning anything. I have it figured out already. I am going to make this wedding as fun for you as possible. After you sign the papers, we will throw a party with cake and confetti. It will be amazing! I even found some dresses for the occasion so that you can look pretty on your wedding day."

GLaDOS turned away for a second and used her claw to pick up something on the other corner of the room. She turned around holding a red dress.

"See? Isn't it pretty?" GLaDOS said laying the dress down on Chelsea's bed.

Chelsea sat up, leaned over, and looked at it feeling absolutely stupefied. She could not believe that a situation this absurd was happening to her, and she had no say in it whatsoever.

"We also have this one," GLaDOS said laying down a blue dress and interrupting Chelsea's thoughts.

"And this one," she said laying down a green dress.

"And this one," she said laying down a purple dress.

"And these," GLaDOS said dropping about a dozen other dresses on the bed.

"Where did all these dresses come from?" Chelsea thought to herself.

"However, if you want to know my opinion, I think this one would be perfect," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea looked up to see GLaDOS holding up a white dress.

"It's white, the color that brides wear," GLaDOS said. "It looks like it's just your size, too."

GLaDOS laid it on top of all the other dresses for Chelsea to look at. Chelsea ran her hand over it. The texture was nice. It was a silky embroidered, sleeveless dress. It was quite pretty to look at.

"If you don't like these, don't worry about it," GLaDOS began. "There are plenty more outfits to choose from."

Then Chelsea's face went white, she suddenly realized where all these dresses probably came from and felt unclean. In her stupefied panic, she pulled her feet out from under the covers and kicked all the dresses onto the floor, much to GLaDOS's annoyance.

"Don't you think that was unnecessary?" GLaDOS asked. "If you didn't like them, you could have just said so."

"You pulled these dresses off of dead women scientists. Didn't you?" Chelsea asked in a panic.

When GLaDOS didn't reply, Chelsea panicked even more.

"Didn't you?" Chelsea asked again.

"No, they're not all dresses from female scientists," GLaDOS said in a tone that was very matter of fact. "Only about ¾ of them are dresses from the female scientists. The other quarter is dresses from former test subjects."

"How could you? That's disgusting!"

"I mended and washed all of them before I showed them to you. They are actually quite clean."

"You know what I mean. You're despicable."

"That means an awful lot coming from a scavenger from a group of other scavengers who break into places and steal for a living."

"We don't steal. We take things that people have abandoned and use them for ourselves."

"Wasn't I doing the same thing? Their souls have abandoned their bodies and their dresses."

"No! We take because the world is in shambles, and we have no other choice. You do it to satisfy your own perverted desires, just like you do when you pursue science. We wouldn't take if we knew it is hurting or disrespecting someone else. We are not thieves."

"Justify it however you will, but you are just as much a thief as you think I am. We just do it for different reasons."

Chelsea responded with silence. She didn't know how to respond to that.

"In any case," GLaDOS said dropping her claw into the pile of dresses and pulling out the white dress, "the white dress is the most appropriate one so it is the one you will be wearing on your special day."

Chelsea just scowled at her in response.

"I found these rings, too," GLaDOS said holding up two wedding rings with another claw. "The diamonds are a decent size. They will be perfect. The groom's outfit is the only thing left, but considering the number of white shirts and black pants around here finding an outfit shouldn't be a problem. See, it is all taken care of."

"I can't believe this," Chelsea said in anger as she lay back against her bed.

"I know. You get to have a wedding that you didn't have to plan," GLaDOS said as she pulled Chelsea's bed toward the middle of the room. "All you have to do is pick out a fiancé."

The bed came to a stop, and GLaDOS pulled a monitor in front of the bed. Across the screen flashed dozens of pictures of men.

"On my database are all the male test subjects that we have in the facility," said GLaDOS. "From these pictures and their profiles, you should be able to pick somebody out. Of course, it would be preferable if he were around your age and if he were at least marginally attractive so that your children wouldn't be ugly. Narrowing it down, that should give you 35 men to choose from. Just to be sure, how old are you exactly?"

"I'm eighteen," Chelsea said in protest. "I'm too young to get married!"

"No, you're not," GLaDOS said. "There are many cultures where women marry young. You're not too young to get married. It's legal to marry at 18 in the United States. In fact, hundreds of years ago, here in the United States, your parents would be arranging the same thing for you by the time you turned sixteen or even younger sometimes. You should be grateful that you get to be a little older and that I am letting you choose the man for yourself."

"I still don't want to go through with it," Chelsea said.

"So, you want to opt out of having your religious beliefs respected?" GLaDOS asked.

"No!"

"That's what I thought. Now, down to business, which man catches your eye, young lady?"

"What?" Chelsea replied. "You really don't expect me to just…"

"How do you feel about this one?" GLaDOS asked as she pulled up a picture of a young Asian man. "He is twenty years old, his name is Joey, and according to his profile, he is a real outdoorsman and an expert horseback rider."

Chelsea said, "Um, I…"

"Doesn't grab you, huh?" GLaDOS said. "Alright, we will move on to the next one."

She pulled up another picture of another young Asian man.

"Stop it," Chelsea said pleadingly. "I can't do this. This is insane. I can't just pick a man out like he's a dog or something."

"Alright, I'll make this easier for you," GLaDOS said. "I had already actually picked someone out while you were sleeping."

GLaDOS pulled down the information from the other young man off of the monitor and pulled up information of a young man that Chelsea recognized immediately. It was Hugo.

"This man is a member of your congregation," GLaDOS said. "He came along with the rest of the rescue party to save you before I caught him. As I understand it, he is a mutant with the power of fire. I'm sure you know each other pretty well. The match would work. Of course, it is an interracial relationship, but I know you don't mind that since you are the product of an interracial relationship yourself. The child might look interesting, but he is close to your age and he is good-looking enough, I suppose. What do you think?"

Chelsea caught onto something. She asked, "How do you know that I was born of an interracial relationship? Have you seen my parents?"

"I tested his DNA, test subject," GLaDOS said in annoyance. "Remember?"

Chelsea was stumped for a second but then thought of something else.

"Then why were the IV's disconnected and just sitting there when I woke up? The doctor robots would not have just left them there. Stop lying to me! You _have_ seen my parents!"

GLaDOS gave out an artificial sigh and said, "You're pretty good at deductive reasoning for someone with a mental disability. You're right. I have seen them. They were in here."

"And you threw them out," Chelsea said in anger.

"I couldn't have them interfere and take you away. Could I? If they know what's good for them, they will stay away from now on and you will never have to see those people again."

GLaDOS moved closer and moved her claw to prop up Chelsea's chin so that they were looking right into each other's eyes.

She then said in a quasi-affectionate tone, "It will just be the two of us from now on. I will be your mother and you will be my little goldmine of science. I will be taking care of you forever, test subject. Won't that be wonderful?"

"Kisama…" Chelsea said in Japanese while shaking her head away from GLaDOS's claw. "Not in your life!"

GLaDOS pulled back.

"So, you are half-Japanese," she said. "Interesting! But you do not need to take such a rude tone with me. Life with me is not bad if you do everything I say. I'm sure you will even grow to love me with time and we will have a mutually beneficial relationship, like the clown fish and the sea anemone. Look at us getting distracted; your ADHD is quite the burden. We need to get back on track. Anyways, what do you think of this man?"

"No! No way! Not him!" Chelsea said.

"Why not?"

"He is not mine to take."

"What do you mean?"

"He belongs to someone else."

"Who?"

"That's none of your business."

"Well, isn't that a problem? She would get jealous if she ever found out what he did with you while she was gone. However, as you seem unwilling to pick any other man out, I have no choice but to pick him. I think he is the best choice anyway."

"Why?"

"It would be the most genetically diverse match. All the other men come from the United States, but per his DNA records, he comes from the Ivory Coast of Africa. For my data, we could see if mutant reproduction has anything to do with ethnic diversity."

"Mutant reproduction?" Chelsea said in horror. "So, all I am to you is a cow you're using to produce the best bull?"

"Oh, no," GLaDOS said. "You're much more valuable to me than a cow. A normal cow can only produce milk and nothing else, but you're different. You're not a normal cow. You see, you're a cow who not only produces milk like all the others but creates and manipulates beams of light. That kind of cow is a miracle that shouldn't exist and can be used for much more than producing milk and making calves, you understand. That kind of cow will therefore be treated much more specially."

"But I'm still a cow."

Chelsea sat there for a moment in silence as she started to feel her head spinning. She tried to squeeze her head in between her knees to make it stop, but it wouldn't. The stress from the disease in her body and the stress from the situation that she was in were working together to make her feel especially sick. She felt like she was going to lose her mind and die both at once.

GLaDOS saw this and said, "Lie down. You are very ill, and all this talk of weddings has made you a bit too excited. As eager as you are, we still must wait for you to recover from your illness, so lie down and rest. Oh, and let me know if you need anything. I will just be over here getting some work done."

GLaDOS adjusted the bed to lie down and used her claw to push the bed to the other side of the room away from the monitor. She then turned away to do some work on the other computers. Chelsea just sat there with her head in between her knees feeling too weak to do anything.

"God, I think I am beginning to understand why my mother stopped talking while she was here," prayed Chelsea in her mind as she tried to fight the tears. "Talking here is absolutely pointless. Your voice is not heard anyway."

Chelsea moved her head to rest on top of her knees as she wrapped her arms around her legs.

"God, I don't know how I have not gone insane already," Chelsea continued to pray in her mind as a few tears started to fall. "I feel like a slave. No, I am a slave, her slave. I'm just like a sex slave or the Combine's slave. God, this is horrible! No one should feel this way ever. I feel so helpless. I feel like I'm owned by someone else. Why am I here? Why have you allowed this to happen? I am so scared. I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs yet I must hold it all in so that she won't see. Heck, even if I wanted to I can't, because I can't freaking breathe! God, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up, but I might have to for the rest of my life. Is this all that my life is going to become? Will life be lived on the surgical table, in interrogations, or in test chambers while waiting for her to put me to sleep again?"

Chelsea paused and realized in horror, "I can never go outside again. I will never feel the sun on my skin or feel rain on my face. I will never see the snow falling. I will never again hear the birds sing or see any plants or smell any of the flowers. All I will see are the insides of these ugly chambers. I can't live this way. I should run, but I know that I'm too weak. If I try, I will probably just collapse on the floor, but I can't stay here either. The people I love are in danger and not escaping because I'm here. I should do something, but I don't know if I will live or die if I try. God, do you understand how I'm feeling? I'm scared. I don't want to be here."

Chelsea then thought and remembered the stories from the Bible that she read and suddenly felt ridiculously stupid.

"You do understand, God. People in the Bible felt this way. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. David had to run from the king he had served so loyally because that king was jealous and wanted him dead. Esther was forced into marriage with King Xerxes. Daniel was forced to serve the king of Babylon. Even you suffered, Jesus Christ. You are the Son of God, but the Romans and the Jewish leaders pushed you through an unfair trial and murdered you by crucifixion, the most painful way to die. But for you, you did it willingly to save humanity. I didn't think I could have more respect for you, but now I do. You were willing to die painfully to save us. Well, you were resurrected but still…You are stronger than I am or ever will be, God. That's why those people who suffered could turn to you for help. It is why I can rely on you, too."

Chelsea unrolled herself from her ball, pulled her legs under the covers, and rested her head on the pillow. She tried to sleep, and as she did, she felt the warmth of God's love and strength surround her like a blanket that was also a shield. Chelsea smiled in joy as she continued to pray.

"I guess it's true what they say, Lord. The communion with God in suffering is one of the sweetest experiences that one can know. I don't know if I've ever felt your presence more in my life. Thank you!"

Chelsea sighed internally before continuing.

"God, suffering is awful, but I thank you that at least it's temporary. This won't last forever. I know that this will end either in my liberation or in my death when I join you. I don't mind the idea of being with you right now, but I really don't want to die. I must take care of my friends and my family. I must be here to protect them. Without me, my spiritual family members would all kill each other. You know that. They need me and want me alive, so I must fight and stay alive for them. I refuse to die here. I will if I must, but since only you can determine that, I'm going to fight to be outside again, outside of this prison. God, when can I run? I could do it now. She seems busy."

Chelsea sat up and felt the pain in her lungs.

"If only I could find Roscoe," she thought. "He would be able to heal me. Too bad I don't know where he is. God, what do I do?"

Just then, Chelsea had another realization.

"Wait a minute! Why isn't she putting me to sleep? That is what she did last time. She must have another reason for bringing me up here, and if I run off now, she will notice that I'm gone when she needs me again. What could she possibly want?"

Chelsea laid down and continued to pray, "I hate that machine so much, God. She has murdered thousands upon thousands of people for no other reason than 'scientific' research. GLaDOS has tortured thousands of people including my mother, depriving them of all life outside this facility and crippling them in so many unseen ways. I have seen how my mom has suffered, God, and I am angry. I'm angry at her, Lord. I have every right to be. She has hurt my mother. She is torturing me. She is torturing my friends. She is just a heartless, sadistic, cold bitch. God, you remember how I prayed that I would be allowed to kill her. I still pray the same thing. God, I know that you will take her out as you do all evil people, but I pray that if possible you could use me to do it. I just want her to receive every bit of justice that she deserves. I want her to suffer in ways worse than she has made all your people suffer. She deserves it, God. You know she does. She will get what is coming to her. That bitch will die."

Chelsea sat up in anger. She wanted so badly to create a disc and aim it straight for GLaDOS's head. However, she saw GLaDOS turn her head in her direction, so before she noticed her, she lay down on her back. GLaDOS turned away once again, and Chelsea began feeling the effects of the painkillers that the robot had given her. She was starting to feel very drowsy. She continued to lie down and continued to pray.

"I thought of another good thing about suffering, Lord. You use it to do good things. You used Joseph to save his family and many other people. You made David king in Saul's place, and he was a better king than Saul ever was. Esther used her position of power to save her people from genocide. You used Daniel to reveal yourself to the Babylonians. You used the death and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus, to make salvation possible for all of mankind. I know you will use this to accomplish something good, too."

Chelsea closed her eyes and opened them about a minute later.

"God, you must be using me to do something good here. It must be up to me to defeat GLaDOS for my mother, for all the people who died, and for everyone else. I have to do it so that she can be out of our lives once and for all."

Chelsea quickly began to lose her consciousness to her pain medicine.

"God, give me the strength, use me however you will, and give me the strength to fight. Please…"

Chelsea shut her eyes and started to sleep while GLaDOS focused on whatever work she was doing on the computers.


	7. Chapter 7

"Day 27," GLaDOS typed into her experiment log. "The subject is continuing to recover from invasive medical examinations and from the pneumonia infection inside of her lungs that developed two days ago.

The new treatment is appearing to have better effects than I imagined it would. When the doctor was removing the bandages on her arms to clean her stitches, he found that the arm had healed significantly and that surgical stitches were ready to be removed. I know it is still too soon to draw any large conclusions, but it appears that this test subject may not be human in more ways than one.

Her pneumonia, while less severe than yesterday, is still a serious enough problem to need constant attention. The disease is currently being treated with an IV filled with penicillin, which is effective for the time being. The test subject has stopped coughing up blood, but she still requires an oxygen mask to breathe.

If it weren't for her illness, we could be testing ahead of schedule and moving along with the experiment with the rate that her stitches are currently healing. I calculate that without her pneumonia it would have been possible to continue within the next week. Perhaps her claims are true and God is watching over her after all. Maybe he is buying her time with her pneumonia."

GLaDOS turned around to see that Chelsea had fallen asleep. She pulled the bed closer to herself with her claw to get a better look at her.

After pulling off the covers and pulling up Chelsea's hospital gown, GLaDOS turned away and returned to her typing, "The test subject is still underweight. If my treatment fails and I cannot find a way to slow down her body's metabolism, she may die from excessive weight loss. I have been giving her more food intravenously than recommended, but her body is consuming it too quickly. Her metabolism is unusually quick. The reason for that is a mystery at this point. Her mutant body appears to function differently than that of a normal human. It will be a pleasure to examine her body for the rest of her days to see exactly how many differences there are if only I can keep her alive for that long.

On a personal note, I have to wonder how Chell has managed to keep the test subject alive for over eighteen years when the best this facility has to offer appears to be helping very little."

GLaDOS watched Chelsea move around in her sleep for a second and then typed some more.

"Today, I allowed her to wake up to tell her the good news about her marriage in compliance with the facility's guidelines about respecting religious beliefs. She was not as happy about it as I thought she would be. Humans are usually happy about getting married, but she was clearly disgusted. I was willing to allow her to choose her own dress and her own fiancé, but she refused to do either. I had to do both myself. Nevertheless, she chose not to opt out of it so I will go ahead with the marriage.

On another personal note, I must say that it is bizarre. Her stubborn behavior reminds me so much of her mother. The two of them clearly have different personalities, but nevertheless, I still feel like I am dealing with Chell in a way. When I look at her eyes and at her face, I can't help but feel that I am looking at Chell again."

GLaDOS looked at Chelsea and used her claw to pull her hospital gown down and pull the covers back over Chelsea's weak body.

"As for the subject's behavior, it remains unchanged for the most part. I had the doctor robot give her more painkillers to dull her senses and make her drowsy and easier to deal with. We have made sure that she will not be able to run around and cause the trouble that she did the other day. The plan seems to be working for now.

Today, she talked just as much as before even though her voice was weak due to her pneumonia, but she moved around a lot less. The painkillers appear to be preventing her from doing any excessive movement. The heavy use of this type of medication has been the best method for keeping her restrained and under control. Continuing with it will be essential as we move closer to carrying out the experiment.

The subject's behavior remains completely rebellious. She did not appreciate any of the work I did to give her a choice of dresses and the option to marry. I have followed Aperture Science's guidelines on respecting her religious convictions, but she still insists on being difficult and completely ungrateful, just like her mother was.

From talking to her, I have learned a great many things about her.

First, she has a very self-righteous personality. It could be attributed to her ADHD, but she seems more fixated on pointing out the moral flaws of whatever she sees as wrong than allowing us to focus on the task at hand.

Second, she is surprisingly deeply convicted in her faith for a teenager. I can tell she has thought about what she believes and is not just quoting what other people say.

Third, she is sharper and smarter than she appears to be. She figured out that I had picked some of the dresses off the dead female scientists and that I had seen her parents without me having to even mention it.

She is an observant and intelligent young lady. That will be good for testing but trouble for me. She might figure out a way to escape. I can tell she does not care for me in the least. All she wants to do is run.

The problem is I cannot restrain her using traditional means. I also cannot get violent with her again. She still has the bruises on her neck from our confrontation the other day. If I resort to violence again, I could hurt her even worse and postpone the experiment further.

So, I am going to attempt something with her that I have never tried with any of the other subjects. I will win her over with kindness. I have not punished her for cutting off my claw, attempting to escape twice, breaking the video cameras in the hallways, influencing my robots to turn against me, or for helping her friend escape. I am hoping that by ignoring these trespasses and granting her some of her desires she will eventually warm up to me. The more she likes me the more compliant she will be. That is the hypothesis at least. The saying goes that gentle persuasion is better than force. I will soon see whether that is true. It seems that I have no choice in that matter if I want to keep her alive."

GLaDOS looked at her again appearing to be considering something about her test subject.

GLaDOS continued typing,

"On another personal note, there appears to be something endearing about her personality, something that makes her attractive in some way. It might be her confidence, it might be her beauty, it might be her faith, it might be her energy, or it might be something else.

Whatever the case, this allure does have an effect. It caused my two robots who had not rebelled against me in 20 years to betray me completely. I find myself having to tighten my own defenses because I can feel the effects of it, too. My hypothesis is that she like an ant can excrete pheromones that make her more attractive to others. We should test that one to see if it is true."

GLaDOS clicked enter and filed the report in Chelsea's file.

"Alright, now," GLaDOS said. "It is time to prepare my next subject for testing."

GLaDOS pulled up a monitor and looked at a picture of Albina.

Inside the testing track, Albina awoke to see the inside of a relaxation chamber. The vault opened. She immediately sat up and stepped out holding her head.

"God, what is going on?" she said in Russian.

"Hello and welcome to the Aperture Science Testing Protocol," GLaDOS said to her. "Testing will begin in less than one minute so be patient and soon a portal will appear on the wall."

Albina immediately straightened up and held her hands behind her as she looked around with a very dignified air. It was the fall season in the outside world yet she was wearing a nice blue tank top and jean capris with no shoes but advanced knee replacements attached to the back of her legs.

Albina pulled her long white hair neatly behind her twice pierced ears and said a quick prayer holding her mother's wedding ring that she wore on a chain as a necklace around her neck. She smiled because she already had a plan of escape.

"GLaDOS," Albina said in her authentic Russian accent. "Do you know who I am?"

"You froze the robot who was trying to examine you, so no," GLaDOS said. "I don't know exactly who you are."

"You want to know who I am?"

"Do I have a choice?" GLaDOS said sarcastically.

Albina walked up to the toilet attached to the wall and flushed it.

"Have you ever heard of Morena?" Albina asked smiling. "The Slavic goddess of the winter?"

"Of course," GLaDOS said.

"Well, you might say that I am her daughter."

Albina used her hydrokinesis to pull the water out of the toilet. She then blew on it, freezing it in mid-air. Next, she broke the ice into projectile shards and fired the pieces into the glass. After that, Albina flew into the air on her winter winds and blasted her wind against the glass causing it to break into a million pieces. Albina flew out through the opening in the glass and looked into GLaDOS's camera with a smile on her face. She then blasted her ice with her hands at the camera causing it to instantly malfunction as the ice froze tore it apart.

GLaDOS was amazed. She did not expect anything like this. She was happy for the science but scared for the control that she knew she was losing.

GLaDOS quickly turned on the other camera in that room and looked for Albina. She was there lounging on top of the glass box. Albina was lying on her stomach with her feet in the air while she was propping up her head with her right hand and using her left hand to cover the floor before her in a layer of ice as she had evidently already done to the rest of the floor in the room.

Albina looked up to see the other camera staring at her.

"I was wondering when you would come back," Albina said.

"I demand you to stop this behavior right now," GLaDOS said sternly. "Your test hasn't even started yet."

"I never properly introduced myself. My name is Albina Romanov."

"From the Romanov royal family?"

"Yes, my mother was, and when she adopted me, I became a Romanov as well."

"Since you're _adopted_, technically you're not related to them at all. Are you?"

"Because of Adam and Eve, we are all related to each other very distantly. Aren't we?" Albina said brushing off her words completely. "But technically, you're right. I am not closely biologically related to them, but that doesn't matter. I was found in the snow on a cold winter night in Russia. My mother was walking outside on a path through the woods when she saw me lying in the snow with only a thin blanket for protection. When she found me, she brought me into her warm mansion. Upon seeing my white skin and blue lips, she was afraid that I was already dead, but I opened my eyes and started to cry. We would later learn that I was blessed with an act of God like so many of my friends. I can fly on the winds of winter, control water, and create ice and snow. I am also immune to the effects of the cold world, and I can use it to my favor. My mother raised me as one of her own despite the work that she had been called to do. I was named Albina after the white color of my skin. My mother died with her new husband while helping me and my step-brother escape to the United States. I have walked a difficult road, but I have overcome with the help of God. I have made peace with my life and am free to walk on. I say all this because I want to ask you something, GLaDOS. Despite the pain, I have made peace in my life, but do you have any peace in yours?"

"What are you talking about? I love my life."

"Really?" Albina asked as she sat up, flew up to the edge of the glass box, and sat down in front of the camera crossing her legs that were hanging over the side.

"According to the Bible, the wicked never have any peace in their lives. Since you are evil, that applies to you. Yeah? You spend all your days testing to satisfy some perverted desire and to learn the ultimate truth about something, but you have never found the answers you want in all your days of work. Have you? So, you test some more and some more and some more, yet you never find what you are looking for. It is completely meaningless," Albina said. "Do you really expect to be able to keep this up forever?"

"I am going to live forever," GLaDOS said. "I can continue to test for as long as I please."

"I will live forever, too," Albina said. "Yet you will continue this cycle for all eternity here while I am free to fly around heaven in freedom. It must be awful to live in this hell of your own discontent misery. You will never test enough to be happy. You will never find what you are looking for in all this pointless work. You will never be satisfied. That is the curse of evil."

"I don't care about being happy or feeling any kind of euphoric emotions. I only care about the science."

"Is that what you tell yourself to keep going every day?"

"Will you stop talking and get on with the testing?"

"Of course, I will."

With that, Albina flew off the roof and landed on the icy floor. GLaDOS opened the portal to go into the next room. Albina skated across the floor and jumped through the portal in the wall breaking the advanced knee replacements off her legs with her ice.

The next room was a group of steps leading to the portal gun. She flew up in the air on her icy winds and looked into one of the cameras.

"I ought to let you know that I do not intend on testing," Albina said confidently. "I only came this far because I wanted to have a big room to show off what I'm capable of. I can leave whenever I want to. I have been asleep for a while so I am just dying to let loose if you know what I mean. This room is a decent size so I think I will be going now."

Albina flew down and began to cover the floor in a layer of ice.

"You are not going anywhere," GLaDOS said.

"Why not?" Albina replied as she continued her work. "It is not like you can stop me. I will be taking my leave soon, but before I go I would like to know what you have done with my brothers and sisters."

"I was actually getting to that. That is the reason that you cannot leave. The person you came to save is with me now. If you leave, you will never see her again."

Albina flew up to the camera and looked straight at GLaDOS.

"You wouldn't dare," Albina said angrily.

"Her health is very delicate right now. It would be very easy for her to decline even more rapidly," said GLaDOS.

Albina gave GLaDOS one of the dirtiest looks that she had ever seen in her entire life. There was angry fire behind her icy blue eyes.

"If you keep testing, I might let you talk to each other. If you pass all the tests, I may even let you have a supervised visit," GLaDOS said. "What do you say?"

"It seems that I have no other choice," Albina said in defeat.

Then just out of spite, Albina blasted a beam of ice straight into the camera before she landed on the floor.

Back in the chamber, GLaDOS moved back from the monitor once again as she lost contact.

"That was extremely mature," GLaDOS said sarcastically.

Just then, Chelsea was awakened by the touch of the doctor robot moving her IV's. She looked up just in time to see him leave the room with them. She then looked up at GLaDOS who she noticed was watching a monitor. Chelsea turned her head to look at the monitor, and she saw Albina. She smiled with joy. She thought that she would never see any of her other friends again. Chelsea sat up and watched Albina on the screen. Albina had picked up a portal gun and was flying towards the elevator.

"Why doesn't Albina just leave? She can use her ice powers to create ice that would break through the ceiling. Why isn't she escaping? For that matter, why am I still here? What does GLaDOS want me to do? What has she done?" Chelsea thought to herself.

GLaDOS turned her head to see Chelsea sitting up in bed.

"Oh, you're awake," GLaDOS said. "Did you enjoy your nap?"

Chelsea said nothing but looked at the screen.

"Your friend is testing right now," GLaDOS said. "Would you like to watch? I told her if she finishes the testing she might get to see you."

Chelsea realized immediately why she was still there.

"You're using me as an incentive for Albina," Chelsea said in realization.

"Every time I talk to you, I just keep realizing how smart you are," GLaDOS said before continuing sarcastically. "You're as intelligent as your mother. Congratulations!"

"That's why she won't leave," Chelsea said.

"You are correct again," said GLaDOS. "And after the testing is over, I intend to put her on the same experimental program that you are on. You know. At first, I was annoyed by your friends, but now, I'm glad they're here. You see with them around I have something to motivate you with, a reason for you mutants to behave. Otherwise, I might completely lose control."

"That's really low."

"I told you already. There is nothing that I cannot do for science."

Chelsea did not know what to say so she remained silent and gave GLaDOS an angry glare.

"Relax and enjoy the show," said GLaDOS. "I promise that I'll let you visit your friend if the both of you behave."

Chelsea prayed silently to herself and watched the monitor. She knew that Albina was clever and could figure something out and so she prayed she would.

Albina did. When she exited the elevator to emerge on the first level of testing, she had a plan. Albina gave a self-assured smile to the camera.

Then she said, "GLaDOS, how do I know you are not lying to me?"

"What do you mean?" GLaDOS asked.

"How do I know that Chelsea is really with you? Chell told me that you were a liar, so you _could _be lying about this. You have given me no evidence to prove that Chelsea is there. All I have to go on is your word, and since I know that is untrustworthy, there is nothing left to do but conclude that you are lying. If you are lying to me, I have no reason to stay here, so unless you allow me to talk to my friend I will leave now."

"How do I know that you are not bluffing yourself? What you did to the relaxation chamber was impressive, but these rooms are bigger and stronger. It is going to take a lot of ice to break these rooms apart. I think you don't have it in you and are just trying to scare me into making a mistake. I commend you for the effort, but unless you can do something to change my mind in the next minute, I am going to have to deny your request."

"I'll show you, GLaDOS, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Albina dropped the portal gun on the floor and flew into the middle of the testing chamber. She flew around and covered the floor in a layer of ice. Albina landed on the ice and commenced ice skating. Then she slid around the ice and built up enough speed to do twirls in the air.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked clearly not impressed. "I am _not_ threatened by ice skating."

Albina smiled and jumped again, but this time, she crossed her arms and created a pillar of ice underneath her with her feet. That pillar of ice rose and rose until she jumped off it just before it broke through the ceiling. Albina immediately created another pillar of ice beneath her and did the same thing as before. The panels on the ceiling were broken through. Albina flew around the room blasting thick layers of ice to the walls with her hands. She then landed on the ice and used her hands to start making icicles that pointed upward, sideways, and every direction.

GLaDOS knew at this point this girl was not bluffing, but she was unsure of what to do. While GLaDOS pondered over what to do, she heard a voice from right beside her.

"GLaDOS, let me talk to her."

GLaDOS turned to look at her. It was Chelsea.

"Albina is stubborn and will not back down unless I say something to her," Chelsea continued with her face downcast. "I know you're powerful and resisting you is pointless. I just don't want her to get hurt. You can do whatever you want. Just allow me to talk some sense into her to calm her down."

"Very good," GLaDOS said cautiously, not having any better plan to go on.

From out of nowhere, GLaDOS handed Chelsea something that looked like a walkie-talkie.

"It is connected to the PA system. Just talk into it and she will hear every word you say," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea looked up at her and flashed a devious smile.

"You are _so_ gullible," Chelsea said.

She jumped up onto a disk and formed a force field around herself before GLaDOS had time to react.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS said.

"Albina! Can you hear me?!" Chelsea yelled into the walkie-talkie.

Albina stopped in the middle of creating another icicle.

"Yes," Albina responded as Chelsea listened as well as she could through the monitor. "Chelsea, are you alright?"

"Stop that right now!" GLaDOS yelled.

Chelsea looked up. GLaDOS was poking claws at her force field so Chelsea had to try to dodge. She yanked off her oxygen mask and dropped the thing on her bed. She then continued flying around and talking while trying to avoid GLaDOS's claws.

"Not really," Chelsea responded. "GLaDOS has been dissecting me like a frog, I have pneumonia, I'm running for my life, and GLaDOS wants to force me to marry Hugo so that she can perform experiments on our child. I am also very underweight, but besides that, I'm fantastic!"

"Wow," Albina responded. "You've really been through it lately."

"How are you doing this?" GLaDOS asked confused at Chelsea's sudden burst of energy. "I drugged you until you could hardly move. This makes no sense."

"Albina," Chelsea said. "Get out and find my parents and the others. GLaDOS will not hurt me. She needs to keep me alive for her work. I'll be fine. Just run! I'll distract her."

"Okay," Albina said as she started creating more icicles. "I'll find you. I promise!"

Just then, Chelsea was slammed into the wall and fell to the floor dissolving both her shields. GLaDOS had pulled back her claws and let them go at just the right moment so that they hit Chelsea's shield with enough force to slam her against the wall and make her lose concentration long enough to dissolve both shields. Chelsea lay on the floor on her right-side wheezing and coughing in pain as GLaDOS wrapped her claw around her waist. She also quickly took away the walkie-talkie with one of her claws.

"As brave as your little stunt was, it's not going to do any good," GLaDOS said coldly as she picked up Chelsea's body and dropped her on the bed. "I'm not going to let your little friend get away. I'm still in control here and am not letting anyone else escape."

GLaDOS called for the doctor over the PA system.

"Doctor, get in here," she said as she put the oxygen mask next to Chelsea's face as she continued to lay on her side. "Our patient could really use a tranquilizer right now. She's been acting out and is going to hurt herself if she continues for much longer."

She turned from Chelsea to look at the monitor as Albina was creating more and more icicles. She was jumping around and using her feet to leave an icicle everywhere she stepped. Using her hands, Albina hydrokinetically directed these icicles to rise all the way to the roof. The panels on the roof looked ready to give way so Albina starting riding an icicle rising at a 45-degree angle towards the roof.

"I recommend you cut this out immediately before I kill you," GLaDOS said. "You will not be punished for all this vandalism if you stop right now."

Albina ignored her and kept going.

"Alright, I warned you," GLaDOS said as she prepared her offenses.

"NO!" Chelsea screamed as she got up, jumped off the bed, and flew on a disc in front of GLaDOS's face. "I'm _not_ going to let you hurt my friend!"

"I will only say this once. Get out of my way, test subject."

"_Not_ a goddamn chance!"

Chelsea jumped off her disc onto GLaDOS's face and wrapped her thin body around it so that GLaDOS was blind.

"Get off my face now," GLaDOS said as she shook her head in every which direction.

"No!" Chelsea yelled.

"I don't understand you! You're drugged, and you're weak! Overexerting yourself could hurt you very badly. You know all of this and yet you are still fighting me in this state. Why? Why are you doing this? I know you're self-righteous, but I also thought you were intelligent."

"You told me there was nothing you wouldn't do for science. That is how I feel about my friends. There is nothing that I won't do for them. I will die to protect them if I have to and there is nothing you can do about it!"

"Do your best not to die then," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "I can't afford to lose you quite yet."

"What?"

GLaDOS slammed her head against the wall. Chelsea put up a force field to protect herself but the pain was still there. Nevertheless, she held on as she was slammed into the wall again and again and again. Chelsea could feel her stitches tugging and causing pain throughout her entire body. Nevertheless, she held on to protect her friend. Albina was her sister in Christ and her best female friend. They had been there for each other since they were kids. If she had to die to protect her, so be it.

After about half a minute of pain, Chelsea turned around to look at the monitor and watched as Albina's icicles broke the roof. She smiled as she saw her friend fly through the holes she created in the ceiling.

"Yes," Chelsea said quietly. "She's gone."

"WHAT?!" GLaDOS shouted as she froze in place. "No! No! No! No! No!"

Chelsea should have been afraid. She knew that GLaDOS was pissed off. Nevertheless, she felt elated.

"It looks like I win again," Chelsea said happily. "God is so good."

"Why you obnoxious," GLaDOS said as she slammed her head against the wall to break Chelsea's grip on her head and her force field around her body. With every adjective that followed, she slammed Chelsea against the wall even harder.

"…annoying, self-righteous, stubborn, ungrateful, mentally disturbed, juvenile, deceitful, insane little freak!"

At the last hit, Chelsea couldn't hold on anymore. She let go of GLaDOS's face and dropped to the floor. GLaDOS looked at the monitor and used other cameras to see if there was any possibility of Albina being found.

Meanwhile Chelsea was on the ground on her side feeling on the verge of passing out from all the pain while trying to be strong. She placed a disc under her body and used it to fly to the wall right next to where the door would open. As soon as the robot came in, she planned on cutting the robot apart and leaving.

Unfortunately, unable to find Albina, GLaDOS turned around and grabbed Chelsea's thin waist with her claw using it to lift Chelsea in the air and bring her close to her eye.

"Where do you think you're going?" GLaDOS asked in a strangely concerned tone. "I thought I told you that exercise was a bad idea in your condition. You're still very ill, and I need you well for all the work we will be doing so I'm going to put you back on bed rest until further notice. Don't worry. You have nothing to fear from me for right now. Your stunt made me angry, but I will not let that change our relationship. I am still your mother, goldmine, and as such, I will continue to keep you alive. You're far too valuable to kill. If I were to do it, it would mean that I couldn't squeeze all this wonderful science out of you, so stay calm. You have no reason to run from me."

GLaDOS dropped her back on her bed so that she was sitting upright. Chelsea breathed a sigh of relief as GLaDOS pulled the oxygen mask back over her head.

"Sit still and breathe until the doctor comes back," said GLaDOS in an unsettlingly calm voice. "Do not take off your mask or you and everyone else will be choking on neurotoxin. Is that understood?"

Chelsea nodded.

"Good, we're on the same page then," GLaDOS said beginning to calm down. "You probably know as you have no doubt heard from your mother that I am not usually this nice. Whenever your mother attempted to escape, I tried to kill her. You should be grateful. I could be much crueler."

"I am grateful," Chelsea began as she lay down on her bed and pulled the covers over her body. "But not to you."

Before GLaDOS could push the matter further, the doctor robot walked in with the tranquilizer and the new IV's.

"Thank, God," GLaDOS said. "She has been going berserk. We need to subdue her now before she acts out again."

"Alright," the doctor calmly responded. "First though, I need to re-insert both of her IV's to be sure that illness is getting treated again. Every moment we stall, she is growing worse."

"Okay," GLaDOS conceded. "Just make it quick before she feels inspired to anything dumber than what she has already done."

Chelsea prayed in her head, "Thank you, God! Thank you for the strength that you just gave me. That was incredible. I feel like celebrating. I want to sing right now, but my lungs are not strong enough. I know you love anything I do for you, so I think I will just hum instead."

While the doctor robot was sanitizing the new needles for the IVs, Chelsea hummed the song "Kyrie Eleison" by Hildegard von Bingen, a female Christian mystic and composer of the Middle Ages who Chelsea looked up to a great deal.

The robot continued working with the IV's and finally injected them in while Chelsea continued to hum, as GLaDOS stared at her intrigued.

GLaDOS was genuinely impressed that Chelsea knew about Hildegard von Bingen. As influential as von Bingen was, she was not exactly a household name, especially not among teenagers. She was also amazed by the genuine joy and strength that she saw in her heart. It was bizarre. The test subject was so grateful to God despite the many traumatic things that had been happening to her in general. Most of the test subjects GLaDOS had worked with were blubbering masses of fear before this point. Chelsea was joyful in a way that was not normal. It made very little sense and all GLaDOS could do was watch her in fascination.

Once Chelsea was done humming "Kyrie Eleison," she began humming a lullaby song that she knew very well. It was the song "Cara Mia Addio," the song that the turrets sang for Chell when she had left the facility for good.

This song caught GLaDOS more off guard than the other song did. She recognized the song that she had composed. She was shocked. Her memory drive involuntarily flashed across the monitor screen. On it played clips of her adventure with Chell.

Chelsea was confused but intrigued at the same time to see images of her mother as a young woman in Aperture Science. Chelsea kept humming to see what else she could discover, and across the screen began a series of images of memories that GLaDOS did not want to see and thought she had deleted. The word Caroline flashed across the screen. Then GLaDOS began seeing images in a mirror through the eyes of a younger woman with long brown hair who was working for an older man.

"No," GLaDOS said in fear. "What is this? I thought I had deleted you."

Chelsea kept humming, and the images just kept coming.

"So that is what Caroline looked like," Chelsea thought.

Chelsea kept humming and more and more images kept appearing on the screen. They were _her _memories of a normal life inside and outside the facility. GLaDOS saw _her_ do things like walk in a park, go to a movie, work in the facility, et cetera. Each clip was short. They were fragments of memories but all the same they were memories that were involuntary flowing from GLaDOS's mind onto the monitor in front of her.

GLaDOS couldn't handle seeing them. She started to panic.

"No, I don't want to look at this," she said hysterically. "Doctor, put her to sleep! Make the humming stop! Please!"

The doctor quickly injected the tranquilizer into Chelsea's arm, and she fell asleep immediately. The humming stopped, and GLaDOS began to pull herself together as the monitor faded to black.

"Take her back to the lab and continue her treatment," GLaDOS said to the doctor robot. "Make sure she is heavily guarded."

The doctor robot nodded and wheeled Chelsea out of the room leaving GLaDOS alone with her thoughts.

"What just happened?" she asked herself. "How is _she_ still inside my head after all these years? How did that girl bring her back?"


	8. Chapter 8

Once she had escaped, Albina flew out of the hole in the testing chamber and looked around. She was not sure where to go next, but she knew that she had to move fast before GLaDOS did something else.

Fortunately, Kayla was flying by in the vent just in time to see her. She was continuing to mark the sides of the vents with her spray paint. She had stopped for a second to catch her breath and looked out through the grating and saw Albina flying outside of the testing chamber.

Kayla could have just called out to Albina, and she would have heard her. The vent wasn't far from where Albina was flying. However, Kayla came up with a funnier plan. She picked up her iPhone and quickly found the song she was looking for. She found the instrumental track to Albina's "favorite" song. Kayla then made sure the volume was turned all the way up and pressed play.

Albina immediately heard the music and turned around. She was confused until she heard Kayla's singing voice.

"The snow glows white on the mountain tonight, not a footprint to be seen," Kayla sang.

"Kayla?!" Albina called out.

"A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the Queen."

"Thank God! How are you? Are you alright?"

"The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside, couldn't keep it in;

Heaven knows I've tried."

"Kayla, why are you singing that song? You know how I feel about that song."

"Don't let them in, don't let them see."

"Cut it out."

"Be the good girl you always have to be."

"Where are you?" Albina said as she flew closer to where the sound was coming from.

The music stopped. She noticed the grating on the vent had been removed, but Kayla wasn't there. Then from the right side of the vent, the music started again as did Kayla's singing.

"Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know. Well now they know!"

As Kayla continued singing, Albina climbed into the vent. She managed to fit herself in and then used her feet to create a layer of ice under her feet and blew her icy winds behind her so that she was propelled forward into the direction of the voice.

"Let it go, let it go. Can't hold it back anymore. Let it go, let it go! Turn away and slam the door. I don't care what they're going to say. Let the storm rage on. The cold never bothered me anyway."

Kayla kept flying further and further into the vent while she was singing. In her way, she was leading Albina to where their headquarters was. Meanwhile, Albina was sliding through the vents very quickly to keep up with the voice. As Albina slid through the vents, she noticed that Kayla had spray-painted directions on the vent walls. She figured out that she was heading for a place Kayla titled "h.q." which mostly meant headquarters.

"It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all. It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through. No right, no wrong, no rules for me, I'm free! Let it go, let it go. I am one with the wind and sky. Let it go, let it go! You'll never see me cry. Here I stand and here I'll stay. Let the storm rage on."

Kayla reached their headquarters but continued hovering at the exit and continued singing to Albina to guide her with her voice. Albina knew she was getting closer and closer to where she was. She had to be since Kayla's voice was getting louder and louder.

"My power flurries through the air into the ground. My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around and one thought crystallizes like an icy blast. I'm never going back; the past is in the past."

Albina finally reached her exit and flew down the vent corridor where she knew Kayla was.

"Let it go, let it go and I'll rise like the break of dawn. Let it go, let it go. That perfect girl is gone. Here I stand in the light of day. Let the storm rage on!"

Albina finally slid out of the vent and flew down to the floor. She looked up to see Sylvie sitting on the couch, three robots standing in surprise at her presence, and Kayla flying in the middle of the room as she prepared to sing the last line.

"The cold never bothered me anyway!" Kayla sang and then flashed a large smile.

"Hi, Albina," Kayla said mischievously. "What did you think of my song?"

Albina smiled and shot ice straight at Kayla who swerved fast enough to avoid it. The robots started to panic. Atlas and P-Body hid on the other side of the couch behind Sylvie while Alpha prepared to deploy his guns.

"No," Sylvie said turning to Alpha. "Leave her alone. She's a friend."

Then turning to Albina, Sylvie said in frustration as she stood up, "What was that about? Why were you trying to freeze Kayla?"

"I was not trying to freeze Kayla," Albina said crossing her arms and looking up at Sylvie's face. "I was trying to shut her mouth."

"Well, you looked like you were trying to freeze her to me."

"I was not trying to freeze her. You, on the other hand, could stand to chill out."

"Watch it, Albina! I'm not in the mood to deal with your wisecracks."

"It's nice to see you, too."

Sylvie just glared at Albina as she held her ground calmly with a mischievous grin.

"Will you calm down please, Sylvie?" Kayla asked. "We really were just messing around. You know that she would never hurt me."

_"I wish Chelsea was here,"_ Kayla thought to herself. _"I don't like dealing with this drama."_

"Whatever," Sylvie said as she walked past Albina. "Let me get you something to eat."

But Albina walked over, grabbed Sylvie's wrist, and pulled her back down to the couch.

"Before I eat, I want to know what is the matter with you," Albina said. "You are usually not _this_ tense."

"Yeah, Sylvie," Kayla said just then catching on to Sylvie's stress. "What has happened? Why are you freaking out so much?"

Sylvie shook out of Albina's grip and decided to reply knowing that there was no point in hiding anything from Albina since she never gave up once her suspicions were aroused.

"You're right," Sylvie said calmly. "Something did upset me, but I know what I have to do about it now so that problem is taken care of. Now, let me get you food, Albina."

"Okay," Kayla said willing to let the matter drop, but Albina was not satisfied.

"Sylvie, we are your family in Christ," Albina began. "You do not have to hide things from us. I want to know what is burdening your soul so speak to me. Besides, you know you will never feel any better unless you let it out."

Atlas beeped in agreement as he came out from behind the couch. P-Body did the same thing.

"Shut up," Sylvie said to them angrily. "What would you two know about talking about your emotions?"

The two robots chirped disagreement and the two other girls sat there in silence waiting for Sylvie to reply.

"She is sad because she saw dead people," Alpha said, calming the tension. "It made her sick, and she's been sitting on the couch ever since."

"Alpha," Sylvie said in shock.

"Sylvie," Albina said. "What does he mean by that?"

Sylvie gave in. She knew that she had to tell them the truth and that bearing her problems on her own shoulders was not an option anymore.

Sylvie looked down at the ground and began, "I was hacking into the Aperture Science computer network. I have been looking through everything possible for us to help us defeat GLaDOS, so I looked at the video surveillance footage. I saw all the test subjects die during testing. I also saw GLaDOS kill everyone with her neurotoxin gas. She killed adults_ and_ children. I watched them all die…horribly."

Kayla was horrified.

"Oh, God," she said.

"It was so terrible," Sylvie said as she looked up and wiped a few tears off her face with her right hand.

Albina, however, kept her composure. "Sylvie," she said. "You said that you had found a solution. What did you mean by that?"

Sylvie looked at her with a determination on her face.

"I am going to keep on going with it," she said. "I will look through the video footage and through everything else I can."

"But, why?!" Kayla exclaimed. "You're torturing yourself! Can't you just skip over it?"

"I have to do it," Sylvie said firmly. "As those people were dying, they thought that they were dying alone and that no one would ever bring them justice or know what happened to them. They thought that they would forever be forgotten by the rest of the world. So, for their sake, I will not let that happen. I am going to transfer all the video footage and everything else I learn about this place to P-Body. Then once we escape, I'll compile all the footage into one video and all the information into a book. I will tell the world about the evils of Aperture Science. Everyone will know what happened here and justice will finally be done. People will know so that like the Holocaust they will never ever repeat the same mistakes again, and the souls of everyone who died here will finally be able to rest in peace. God is using me now to bring justice to these people, and I cannot pass up that opportunity just because what I see is disturbing. You don't have to worry about it taking long. It won't. I will get all that I've seen already onto P-Body and then I will look through information and upload it onto him at the same time. I'll most likely have all the information in about two days. Besides, we can use the information we learn to defeat GLaDOS. You don't have to worry about me being overwhelmed either. I'm a strong woman. I'll be able to handle it."

Then turning to P-Body, she said, "I realize that I just now asked you to be involved without your permission. I can't force you to be a part of it. This mission is dangerous. If GLaDOS figured out what we were doing, she would be doubly determined to stop us. With that in mind, do you want to help me?"

P-Body beep in affirmation. He wanted to help however he could. Atlas, meanwhile, continued to stare at her in admiration.

Kayla, still a little shocked at hearing the most that she has ever heard Sylvie talked at one time, replied, "Sylvie, I hate to be the cynical one, but the world is still broken. Once we get out of here and your work is done, how will you distribute the work to everyone? The way the world is now, only the people at our hotel will see it."

Sylvie smiled and said, "I have thought long and hard about that one, too. Albina, when you go out to fight against the Combines in the spring, will you allow me to go with you? If I am going to carry out this mission, I will need to carry out the larger mission for the sake of our world."

Albina smiled and said, "Of course, once all our work here is done and the spring comes, you shall come with me. I am proud of you, Sylvie. You are very noble."

Kayla pitched in, "Then, can I come, too? I have always wanted to kick some alien ass!"

"You are too young," Albina said.

"I _am_ not! The guy who started the Navy was eleven years old when he became the captain of his own ship! I can help, too! You should have seen what I did to GLaDOS with my telekinesis. I can totally handle myself."

"We will talk more about this later," Albina said as Kayla sunk down into the couch and sulked. "I think we had better catch each other up on all that has been happening and figure out what to do in the meantime."

"Agreed," Sylvie said standing up and walking to the counter. "But before we do, who is in the mood to eat?"

Meanwhile, P-Body had spotted the Bible in Sylvie's backpack and picked it up to start reading it out of curiosity. Before he read too far into it, however, he walked over to Sylvie to ask if he could read it while she messed around with the food synthesizer.

"Yes, P-Body, you can read the Bible," Sylvie said. "It is God's guide for all His people. You should be reading it anyway since you're one of us now. You can finally understand what we're talking about."

"Wait a second," Albina said. "You can understand him?"

"Yes, I'll explain in a moment," Sylvie said as she used the food synthesizer to get turkey sandwiches for the three of them.

P-Body walked over to Atlas, showed him the book, and asked if he wanted to look at it with him. Atlas simply looked at him and waved his hand to shoo him away as he stared at Sylvie. P-Body walked away and gave him a look of suspicion.

When Sylvie was done, she walked over, set down the food, and got Albina her water. After they prayed, Sylvie and Kayla told Albina everything that happened after they got separated as they all sat on the couch while Atlas sat in his chair and continued to stare, P-Body sat against the wall listening and reading the Bible, and Alpha watched the women eat. From escaping from the turrets to finding Zaki, Pastor Roberts, and Chell to hearing from Chelsea and getting separated again to forming a partnership with the robots to spray-painting the vents to reuniting with each other and fighting GLaDOS to finding Alpha, they explained it all. Albina on her end did not have as much to talk about, but it was nonetheless important. She talked about how she escaped GLaDOS's testing chambers and more importantly how Chelsea was doing.

"GLaDOS is forcing Chelsea to get married?" Kayla said in disbelief. "To _Hugo_?"

Sylvie was speechless. She was angry that GLaDOS was forcing Hugo and Chelsea, two people who would never do anything to hurt her, to betray her for the sake of being in some grotesque experiment they wanted no part of. It was horrible. She had to get back to work so that she could get them closer to setting them both free.

"We have to stop her before she has a chance to carry this out," Sylvie said in determination. "It's time to get back to work. Come over here, P-Body."

P-Body beeped in affirmation and sat on the couch where they were before. Kayla got up, threw the garbage away, and filled her water bottle up.

"Kayla, wait," Albina said. "I'm going with you."

"What are you going to do?" Sylvie asked.

"Vandalism," Albina responded with a smile. "I shall cover all _her_ testing chambers with ice so that she cannot test. That way, no one dies before we get Chelsea."

"That's a good idea," Sylvie said as she mentally prepared herself to hack again. "I'll let you get to it. Just don't wander too far away from Kayla. She will know when it's time to go back."

"I'm ready to go, Albina," Kayla said as she flew under the vent and prepared to enter. "I'll see you later, guys."

"I'll be there in a minute, Kayla," Albina said as she kept looking at Sylvie. "Go on ahead."

"Whatever," Kayla said as she went into the vent.

However secretly, she lingered near the entrance of the vent to see what would happen.

Albina walked towards Sylvie.

"What do you want?" Sylvie said in annoyance. "We have work to do and you two need to go."

Albina said nothing but sat down between her and P-Body and gave Sylvie a hug.

"I don't want to leave you alone like this," Albina said compassionately. "You are still so upset and need support yet you are acting so strong. I don't like seeing you so sad. I want to bear the pain with you."

"I'm not weak, Albina," Sylvie said as she pushed Albina back and forced her to let go. "I don't need you to take care of me."

"You can't bear yourself alone with no support. You need to stop pushing people away."

Sylvie quickly realized that Albina was right. She noticed the behavior she had before. She had been pushing people away in some misguided effort to be independent and strong, but she knew she had to do better, to be the person God wanted her to be.

"You're right," Sylvie said slowly and humbly, letting go of her pride. "I'm sorry for being so short with you."

"I meant what I said when I said I was proud of you. You are such a strong and noble person for what you will be doing. However, you need to be careful. This is a dark place and you cannot let its darkness crush you. Remember, God is still good. He has triumphed over all the evil of this world and one day that darkness will disappear forever. For that, we have a reason to be joyful. We do not have to let the darkness of this hell destroy us. Life can go on. Believe me. I understand how you feel. The Combines killed my mother and everyone in the group I was traveling with, except me and my step- brother. You can trust me on this."

"I'll try to remember that. You are a wise and dependable sister, Albina. Thanks!"

"Then, what am I?" said Kayla poking her head out of the vent while hovering upside down.

"Can't we have a moment without you interfering?" Albina asked in annoyance as they turned around to look at her.

"No! I'm not a baby. I can be involved, too. Listen, Sylvie. Albina's right. There is _more _to the world than darkness."

"Thank you, Kayla," said Sylvie. "For the record, you are the annoying younger sister I've always wanted."

"I'll take what I can get," Kayla said smiling.

Albina rolled her eyes and then said, "You can be such a pain."

"Let it go! Let it go!" sang Kayla.

"You know how I feel about that song, you obnoxious little brat!" yelled Albina as she ran towards the entrance of the vent.

Kayla laughed and flew further into the vent before Albina could reach her.

Albina stopped just before she flew into the entrance of the vent and turned towards Sylvie.

"I'll see you tonight, my friend," she said.

"Au revoir," Sylvie said. "Head back at six. Alright?"

Albina nodded and flew up into the vent.

Sylvie heard her yell, "I'm going to turn you into a cube of ice if you don't shut up, Kayla!"

Sylvie chuckled to herself for the first time since that morning.

Smiling bittersweetly, Sylvie prayed, _"God, you have overcome all evil with your Son's sacrifice and for giving us the ability to be conquerors, too. The evil in this place as horrible as it is will not destroy us. Albina and Kayla are right. You are using us to stop it. I do not have to let it make me depressed. Thank you for your goodness and for them!"_

"P-Body, are you ready to return to work?" Sylvie asked.

P-Body looked up from his reading, got up, set the book down on the table, and walked over next to where she was on the couch.

With that, Sylvie touched P-Body's head and went back to work.

At first, she saw more of the same horrible things. The surviving scientists installed a morality core on GLaDOS, but all that did was make her force them to test instead of just killing them with neurotoxin. Everyone who survived the neurotoxin was caught and tested, except for one man. Watching the scientists get what they deserved was satisfying but still terrible. Watching the innocent test subjects die was even worse. GLaDOS was more cruelly apathetic than all the scientists were. Sylvie didn't think that could be possible, but it was true.

Around the same time, Sylvie saw a lone man running free around the testing facility. According to the computer records, his name was Doug Rattman, and from reading his information, it seemed he was the most ethical and the most mentally ill man in all of Aperture. He was the only one to survive the incident on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, the day when GLaDOS was activated and the day that Rattman had repeatedly tried to warn his colleagues about, to the point that disciplinary action was required. GLaDOS cruelly taunted him for his schizophrenia, but he still managed to not give in and run free from her. That made Sylvie happy. There was hope in this dark place, after all.

From what Sylvie observed over the years, Rattman's behavior became increasingly erratic. He painted odd murals all over the facility and talked to a companion cube that he carried around on his back. Nevertheless, Sylvie rooted for him all the way while also feeling more and more pity for him. The poor guy was already mentally ill and being trapped in this place for years just made it worse. Sylvie wondered in her mind about his fate.

While watching him and taking in all the information, she saw something weird happen with the testing list. Chell, whose name was originally at the bottom, was moved to the top. Sylvie did not see GLaDOS do it, so she figured that it had to be Rattman. Chell's files said that she was an extreme outlier in terms of tenacity. Perhaps, that was why he did it. He had a hunch that turned out to be right.

It was exciting to watch Chell test. Chell was so strong, so silent, and so resilient. Sylvie knew how much pain that her best friend was in but admired how hard she fought. Eventually, she watched Chell escape and finally fight off GLaDOS. However, after that, something else weird happened. Chell disappeared but then reappeared in one of the long-term relaxation chambers. The power had been offline once GLaDOS died, but the reserve power was activated by a mysterious force, just for Chell. Then, the relaxation chamber computer network showed that someone entered a relaxation vault. It had to be Rattman. It couldn't have been anyone else. He stayed behind to save her, and because of that, Chell survived.

Sylvie did not know why he had entered the relaxation vault at the time, but she was glad that she could now tell his story.

"Thank you for saving my best friend, Rattman," Sylvie said out loud. "Whatever happened to you, I will make sure that the world will not forget you or your courage. I promise."

Sylvie still felt sorrow over all the horror that this facility had brought upon people, but she was happy to see that there was hope in all this darkness after all.

For many years afterwards, Sylvie saw little to no new developments until finally the relaxation vault main computer indicated that Rattman had escaped from his vault. Sylvie did not know how it had happened, but it did. She figured that he was the one who arranged the murals for Chell, but besides that, she saw nothing more of him.

The video camera footage leaped ahead to many years later to when GLaDOS woke up. She watched as Chell was forced to test again, and the backstabbing Wheatley took over. She watched Chell and GLaDOS work together to overcome Wheatley, and then saw Chell get sent away and her bittersweet reaction to the turret opera.

Next, Sylvie saw Atlas and P-Body in the footage for the first time. GLaDOS tested them for a while but got bored with the fact that they couldn't die and wanted humans to test with again. She had Atlas and P-Body find a group of people hidden away in the facility so she could test them. Sylvie had pain on her face as she stopped looking at the footage and looked at the two robots she now considered her friends. GLaDOS had lied to them and told them that they were saving the humans, but they still inadvertently had a hand in all their deaths.

P-Body moved away from her ending the transmission. He sat on the couch and stared blankly at the wall. For the first time in his life, P-Body was overcome with guilt. He never knew how wrong his and Atlas's actions were. He never knew how the people had suffered. He never thought about it or cared about anything that GLaDOS did not want them to care about. He had just been the obedient pawn she wanted. P-Body felt used, and he felt like a murderer. Seeing his pain, Atlas walked up to him and put his hand on P-Body's, but P-Body pushed him away and gave an angry and sorrowful bit of garbled speech.

The translation that Sylvie heard: "We're both monsters, Atlas. She made us kill people, and there is nothing we can do to take it back."

"You're right about that, P-Body," Sylvie said solemnly. "You both did terrible things and there is nothing you can do now to bring those people back. However, you can receive forgiveness for what you did. A long time ago, God, the one who made the universe and everything in it, was so grieved by the sin of mankind and wanted to save them from their evil hearts, so he sent his son, Jesus. Jesus died as punishment for the sins of man and was resurrected to make it possible for men to be forgiven for their sins and have new life through a relationship with him. I think it is possible for you to receive that forgiveness. You two are not humans, but I think God still cares about you and wants to forgive you, too. All you have to do is ask for it."

P-Body did what Sylvie asked, and he received forgiveness that day. As soon as he felt the freedom from his guilt, he went back to helping Sylvie with a new determination. He was going to defeat GLaDOS and right the wrong that they had done. Sylvie was grateful for this development in P-Body's mind as she continued her work. She had just saved P-Body's soul. She never even knew that such a thing was possible, but it had just happened. Atlas did not warm up to the message as she would have liked, but that was alright. It would just take time, and for the time being, Sylvie felt enough joy to last her a while.

Atlas, in the meantime, continued to sit and stare at her with an air of wonder. He did not know what to make of what she said, but he knew that her kind words and her wisdom made a difference in P-Body's heart and was making a difference in his. She was like an angel blessing people with her words. He now felt even more strongly for her than he did before.

As Sylvie continued to review the footage, she saw more of the same cruel testing as thousands upon thousands more people were killed within the span of about two weeks. But Sylvie was no longer crushed with sorrow. She burned with righteous anger. She knew that they would stop GLaDOS somehow, some way, and instead of fearing the fight, she began to look forward to it. She wanted that robot to die.

Meanwhile in the vents, Kayla continued mapping and spray painting the vents. She was very glad to have Albina to accompany her, temporarily at least. Kayla guided her to where some testing chambers were being stored, and she agreed to come back for her once it was 6pm, the time that Sylvie ordered them to return.

The two parted ways, and Albina used her ice to break through the vent grating to immediately get to work. She flew out of her hiding spot and looked around.

It was a large, open and seemingly endless expanse lit up with the artificial blue lights with at least a dozen testing chambers lined up in front of her with a catwalk which led to a door going to a large enclosed office area on her left. The chambers were all held up with supports that were connected to the mechanical rails which protruded from the expanse to transport them to the enrichment center. The chambers were organized from smallest to largest in a straight line.

Albina sighed. At least, the organization would hopefully make destroying them easier.

She created a long icicle under her that was attached to the bottom of the vent and rode it to the first testing chamber. Once she stopped, she flew off and landed on top of it.

Albina then looked around to see if there were any cameras around and saw one looking right at her from right next to the door to the office area. She froze for a second and berated herself for not noticing it right away, but then she smiled. She blasted an ice beam right at it, and it malfunctioned and fell onto the catwalk as a frozen block of ice. Albina knew that she had to act quickly from that point on. Vandals usually acted in secret, but GLaDOS now knew that she was there. Next time, she would have to be more discreet.

Albina blasted ice from her hands over the door until it covered the door and the wall immediately around it completely. GLaDOS may have known she was there, but now there was officially no easy way she could get anyone in there to stop her.

Albina then immediately got to work breaking down the first chamber. First, however, she wanted to check to see if someone or something was in there, so she quickly grew another icicle down from her first icicle to break the box open. It was empty. It was set up to be used with turrets, cubes, and lasers, but there were no humans in there. Albina smiled in happiness as she started creating icicles within the box.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked over the PA system. "I may not be able to see you, but I know that you're in there and that you're doing something."

Albina was silent as she kept working. She filled the box until it was completely full of icicles destroying all within. Eventually, the supports could no longer support the testing chamber and it broke off and fell into the abyss below.

Albina smiled as she eventually heard the testing chamber crash into the ground. She was accomplishing her goal. The testing chambers could not be used and GLaDOS could not test. And since GLaDOS could not test, no more humans would die.

"Are you mad at me for forcing you to test?" GLaDOS asked. "If you want to express your anger, express it to me. Don't take it out on the testing chambers. Honestly now, what you are doing is quite immature. The Romanovs would be ashamed."

Albina ignored her and moved on to the next testing chamber.

"You know that damaging private property is a crime that you could be arrested and deported for," GLaDOS said. "I think you should consider that carefully since you are not a US citizen. How badly do you want to stay in this country?"

Albina ignored her and repeated her same process on all the other testing chambers. As she finally finished her work, she smiled at the thought of GLaDOS's reaction when she saw all her precious testing chambers completely gone.

Knowing that she was up to no good, GLaDOS continued to blast out her insults and her threats, but Albina ignored her and sat on top of her ice bridge which rested on top of the management rails. Albina was finished and had nothing left to do but wait for Kayla to come back that way so she waited.

However, as she looked over her good work, she found that she was not satisfied. The testing chambers were gone, but the management rails were still there covered in ice and looking completely ugly. She needed to do something about that. She flew off the ice bridge and flew back a bit to survey the area to see what else she could do to both destroy it while making it look beautiful.

Before she got too deep into thought, she noticed something. GLaDOS had gone completely silent. Albina sighed in annoyance. That silence meant that GLaDOS was planning something and that Albina had to unfortunately act more quickly than she wanted to. She was sure she could handle whatever GLaDOS threw at her, but she could not place as much work into her lovely vandalism as she wanted to since it might be taken apart before she finished.

Albina sighed again and looked up with a look of playful determination. She would just have to see how much she could accomplish before GLaDOS made her move.

Albina immediately got to work. She put an extra layer of ice over the management rails and the walkways, covering the latter with snow to disguise the ice in case someone entered the room.

She was pleased to see that even after her work was done GLaDOS was still not taking any actions so Albina decided to add something more. She flew underneath the management rails and created icy chandeliers underneath them. Each of them was in a different period style so that they all differed from the other and were absolutely beautiful. Albina flew backwards and admired her work from a distance.

But just then, Albina heard a loud smack from the other side of the door on the walkways like something was trying to break in. She quickly flew up to the ice bridge on top of the management rails and held still waiting for whatever was coming to encounter her.

After less than a minute of smacking, the robots responsible finally broke through the ice. Albina looked over and saw two red robots walk in wielding axes and slip on the ice beneath the snow after taking only a few steps.

On the catwalk, the first robot fell on top of the axe and immediately shut down. The second one fell on his back but managed to pull himself up again with the help of the rails. He looked at his partner in concern and horror, but he was not allowed to mourn for long.

"Don't worry about him," GLaDOS said to his internal radio. "He's dead, but _you _can still die, even more horribly. So, I suggest you keep your eye peeled for the deadly flying ice girl."

He used his left hand to support himself and held the axe close to his chest as he looked up and looked around in awe at the ice he had never seen before and in fear of the one who created it.

Albina knew nothing of his fear, but she knew he was a hostile spy sent by GLaDOS who needed to be taken out. Nevertheless, she thought that it was a better idea to sit where she was and watch him act before making her move. Besides, she wanted to give GLaDOS a chance to react to what she had done.

"Oh, my God!" GLaDOS yelled in shock in the internal radio of the robot when he finally reached the end of the catwalk and looked out over the expanse. "What happened to my testing chambers?! They're all gone! How did that _one freak_ manage this?"

Albina still sat hidden on the ice chandeliers attached to the ceiling. She giggled quietly to herself in anticipation.

"They're really all gone," GLaDOS said as the robot looked back and forth across the space looking for any sign of any of the chambers. "My God. I can't believe this. She really destroyed them and now there is nothing left but these ridiculous ice chandeliers. I guess that these monsters are more dangerous than I thought. If this keeps up, they will manage to destroy the facility even more thoroughly than _she_ did."

Albina could not hear the radio but she saw from the robot's movements that he was surprised and afraid. If that was his reaction, then GLaDOS must have been enraged. That thought made Albina smile even wider.

GLaDOS gave an audible sigh through the connection then started to speak again.

"We need to find that little gremlin before she manages to dismantle the whole facility," GLaDOS said trying to suppress her anger. "When we do, I'm going to enjoying watch her burn in Android Hell until all her ice is melted away. For right now, though, we need to get reinforcements. You may leave now."

When the robot turned around and started making his way back to the door, Albina decided that it was time for her to act. She flew down behind him and created ice from her feet that followed the robot until it froze him where he stood. In panic, he looked around until he saw Albina. Immediately upon being seen, she created more icicles on the ground in front of her that grew until they impaled the robot, almost killing him instantly.

On her end, GLaDOS saw and could still see what was happening despite the damage to the camera and decided to speak to her enemy through the barely functional radio.

"Hello, gremlin," she said. "I can see you and I can see your work. I must say that for a Christian you are quite violent, quite destructive, and quite hypocritical. You are doing all the violent things that my test subject berated me for doing. Due to the pain caused by her most recent outburst, I put her down her another nap so she is not awake right now to see you, but if she was, I think she might be ashamed of you."

Albina did not react, but she walked over to the robot and looked into its eye.

"A Christian is not always a pacifist, GLaDOS," Albina said with a mischievous smile. "Chelsea and I both know that. Unfortunately, violent measures are sometimes necessary to serve the greater good, but unlike you, we know what the greater good really is. Speaking of which, how do you like my work? The chambers were so ugly. I just had to get rid of them. You should thank me. The chandeliers here are so much more beautiful than what was here before. Don't you think?"

"You cold-hearted, little monster," GLaDOS said in an angrier tone. "I hope you are satisfied, because now you have earned a special place in my heart. I have decided that _you_ are the freak that I hate the most. Congratulations! You are the worst person ever and I am going to kill you."

GLaDOS played her clapping sound effect over the PA system.

"You do not hate Chelsea?" Albina said more amused than frightened. "From what, I've heard she has been quite destructive as well."

"That is true, but I cannot bring myself to hate her. Her gifts come from the radiation of the facility's hard light trails, as I'm sure you've heard. To hate her would be to partially hate Aperture Science itself. I could never do that. Besides, she is a gateway to all kinds of scientific discoveries. She is going to teach me so much. It would be illogical to hate someone so useful to me. You, on the other hand, seem to be capable of nothing but wanton destruction, just like a rat who needs to be terminated."

"You flatter me."

"I never intended to. I am going to kill you, Albina."

Albina was slightly chilled by the way that GLaDOS said her name, but she calmed herself down quickly enough to maintain her composure. She knew that GLaDOS was angry, but from talking to Sylvie and Kayla, Albina also knew that the neurotoxin machine was still broken. Unless GLaDOS could get a bunch of turrets down into the area very quickly, there was nothing that she could do to her.

"You talk a big talk, GLaDOS, but we both know there is nothing you can do to hurt me now," said Albina confidently. "Your threats are empty. I have nothing to fear from you, but you have everything to fear from us. If, by some miracle, you manage to kill me, you will not get away with it. My God and my family would avenge me."

Albina was silent for a second before adding, "Do you not wish that you had the confidence that I do?"

"You really think I am in the mood to be preached to by a vandal?" said GLaDOS sarcastically. "Why are you doing this?"

"I just feel sorry for you. You are all alone, and you have nobody who truly cares for you. Your only friends have betrayed you, and even God Himself has abandoned you. You are surrounded by His humans who you can never hope to control and have abilities to allow them to get past all your tricks. It is completely hopeless for you."

"How about you? You are more pathetic than I am. You were abandoned by peasants, and your step-mother is dead. You have no family, you live in a desolate world governed by evil aliens, and you are unloved and alone."

"That is not true. In Christ, I have a huge family. The Spirit of God lives inside me and all the people we brought here, so all of them are my brothers and sisters. I will never be alone. You, on the other hand, will eventually realize how alone you are."

"You may have a spiritual family, but I bet it hurts to know that you will never know your biological family. Doesn't it? You must have so many unanswered questions about your life that must absolutely torture you. For instance, why do you think your birth parents abandoned you? Do you think they left you to die because they were ashamed of how scary you looked? I bet they did so that they would not have to be embarrassed by your existence."

"You're being a bit childish. Don't you think?"

"Maybe, they left you for another reason. Maybe they saw you as a bad omen or a curse or even as a demon and left because they were frightened of you."

That last word caused Albina to freeze where she stood and stare off into the distance. The word was an insult she had heard before. It struck her to her core and made her shake as she suddenly relived a horrible memory.

GLaDOS watched this happen and continued speaking with a smile in her voice, "I think it's entirely possible that you're not truly human. Don't you?"

Albina regained her composure, looked back at the robot's eye, rolled her eyes, and said, "You're more of a lunatic than you think Chell or Chelsea are. Do you know how crazy you sound?"

"It isn't crazy if it's true," GLaDOS said. "In Slavic mythology, they talk about some…interesting…creatures. They say that the fallen angels who were not evil enough to be sent to hell remained on earth as spirits of the elements. You have no idea where your parents came from, so that could be true of you."

"You mean like a nezhit?" Albina said in amusement as she created some more icicles around herself in preparation to end the conversation. "I guess that would make me a kikimora."

"You laugh, but it could possibly be true. Think about it. Your talent causes destruction and misery. That is all winter does under an honest eye. Isn't it? Winter brings about the death of everything good that humans enjoy. That sounds like something demons would do. Does it not? Besides, your gift is not as useful as your friends'. All of them have gifts that have other uses. All ice can do is cause problems. Face it. You were born to be something evil, little demon. If your parents were human, they were correct to be afraid of you. If I were you, I would let myself fall into the pit below to purge the world of my evil."

Albina created ice under her feet that grew until it was looming just over the robot's head.

After a moment of silence, Albina replied, "No one is ever meant to be anything evil, GLaDOS. That is a choice we make for ourselves. Our gifts can be used for good or for bad, no matter what they are. We can decide to be made into saints _or_ we can turn ourselves into monsters. By that logic, you are more of a demon than I will ever be."

"If you say so, you monster," GLaDOS answered back. "If you ask me, come to think of it, I think you should come to see me straight away instead. You have better luck of seeing your friend again if you do."

With eyes that glowed with increasingly intense anger, Albina said, "You want to know another reason why I told you about my past? It was so that you could never hurt me if you found out my secrets. Now, I am immune to the worst of your coldness and have nothing to fear from you, but you have everything to fear from me. I already know all your secrets, and you have hurt someone important to me. Chelsea is my best friend and dearest sister. Unless you repent, I am going to show you just how cold this demon can be."

GLaDOS laughed low to herself and said, "Have fun entertaining that delusion, demon. Now, if you don't mind, I must go. I need to tend to my poor, sick, frail, pitiful, tired test subject. She is in such horrible shape from her over-exertion in trying to protect you this afternoon. I need to go make sure she's still breathing. If she wakes up again, I'll give her your regards."

Before Albina could impale the robot below her, GLaDOS caused the robot to explode and fall apart, breaking the ice surrounding him in its wake.

Albina, safe on her perch, sat for a moment as she thought over the word "demon" and the memories it was bringing back.

Albina then flew up to the rails. As she hovered over the ice on top, she created a bed of snow and let herself fall backwards on top of it. Albina stared up at the ceiling and let herself get lost in her thoughts.

About fifteen minutes later, Albina was lying on her back with her eyes shut when Kayla flew through the exit in the vent. Her eyes grew wide as she gazed in wonder at Albina's beautiful artwork. Kayla flew closer to get a better view of the chandeliers and to, of course, take pictures of everything for Chelsea. It was a lot to take in at one time but she managed to get pictures of all the important details as she flew around the rails.

Albina opened her eyes and saw Kayla fly over her to get an overhead shot. She said nothing but shut her eyes again for a moment as Kayla continued to get her pictures.

Kayla took her time photographing everything, especially the ice chandeliers. She had never seen any fancy chandeliers in real life, so she savored every detail. When she was done, she flew backwards to admire their beauty from afar. After staring at the chandeliers for a solid minute, Kayla noticed the frozen catwalks and the dead robot on top of them. Kayla flew in to get a closer look and get better pictures. Once her photographs were taken, she looked at the robot in fear mixed with curiosity. She picked him up telekinetically and noticed that he had an axe hanging from his chest. The sight made Kayla drop the robot in surprise.

"Do you like my work?" she heard a voice from behind her say.

Kayla turned around to see Albina standing several feet behind her on the walkway.

"Yeah, it's beautiful," Kayla said smiling. "I took pictures of everything so that Chelsea and Sylvie could see it."

"Excellent! That should make Chelsea happy when we get her out."

"Yeah, I just couldn't help but notice the dead robot lying on the ground. What happened anyway?"

"GLaDOS sent two robots to investigate the area. They broke open the door with axes, and this one slipped on the floor and fell onto his axe. I froze the other one, but GLaDOS made him explode before I could finish the job."

"So, you got to talk to GLaDOS?"

"Of course."

"Was she angry?" Kayla asked as her eyes grew wide with excitement.

"She was furious," Albina replied proudly. "She told me that she hated me the most out of all of us and that she was going to kill me."

Kayla's smile disappeared in a flash.

"Are you alright?" Kayla asked as she flew closer.

"Of course, not," Albina replied calmly.

"No, I mean did she say anything super mean to you that hurt you?" Kayla asked with a motherly concern that went beyond her years. "I know GLaDOS is an absolute bitch."

"She called me a demon and said that my parents abandoned me because I looked like a Russian spirit of the elements," Albina said honestly.

"Did that upset you?"

"Yes, but you do not need to worry. She is just like a viper with a mouth full of venom. I know that nothing she says can be trusted and is filled with spite. She has made me doubt, but I know inside that what she says is not true."

"Okay, good! Just let us know if you feel bad."

"Will do. Now, is it time to go back already?"

"Yeah, I made some progress, but I came back once I saw what time it was. It's getting pretty late."

"We should leave then before Sylvie starts to worry. But first, did you get pictures of everything?"

"Yes, but I want to take one more of you in front of your artwork. Would you mind?"

"Not at all."

Albina flew upwards and Kayla followed her until they reached the railings again.

"Just sit on top of the ice, alright?" Kayla said as she flew backwards to get the full shot in view.

"Alright," Albina said as she took her seat.

Kayla took several pictures with her iPhone to make sure she got a good one. She stopped snapping pictures and flew over next to Albina to show her the resulting images.

"These look good, Kayla," Albina said as Kayla showed her the pictures. "Chelsea will be pleased."

Then, the iPhone rang. Albina pulled the phone away from Kayla's telekinetic grip so that she could look at it for herself. She was amazed and confused. She had not seen a smartphone ring since before the world had ended.

"How is this happening?" Albina asked. "Who's calling?"

"It's Sylvie," Kayla said. "She made the phone work. She said she would call me if she needed anything."

"She's amazing," said Albina quickly as she answered the phone. "Hello, Sylvie!"

"Albina?" Sylvie replied in surprise. "Where's Kayla?"

"She's in the chamber with me. I just answered the phone for her."

"Well, how did it go?"

"It has gone well. I have completely destroyed some of GLaDOS's testing chambers and managed to make her hate me even more than she did before."

"You mean that she caught you doing it?" Sylvie asked anxiously. "Albina, you were supposed to be discreet and not get caught."

"I tried, but the video camera saw me before I could destroy it," Albina said calmly. "It was alright. All that resulted is that I destroyed the robots she sent to kill me, we had a little chat, and we went our separate ways. I got out of it fine, and I was able to do some beautiful work. Kayla can show it to you when we return."

"You still should have been more careful."

"It is what it is. She is already trying to kill us, so nothing has really changed. I'll just have to be quieter in the future."

"Well, be that as it may, I want you two back here pronto. It's starting to get dark outside, and I don't want you two by yourselves at night. We need to get back together."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! You sound just like Chell."

"Albina, I'm being serious."

"I know. We're coming back right now. Alright? I just need to finish up in here before GLaDOS sends more robots."

Kayla tensed up and looked around for the robots that Albina mentioned. She then flew closer to her to feel safe.

"Alright, Albina," Sylvie said. "Just come back quickly. Okay?"

"I understand," Albina said annoyed at Sylvie's motherly behavior. "We will see you soon, my friend. Au revoir!"

"Au revoir!"

"Oy," Albina said in annoyance as she handed back the iPhone to Kayla who telekinetically grabbed it and dropped it into the side pocket of her backpack.

"What else do you plan on doing?" asked Kayla.

"I don't think there's anything else to do," Albina said. "We need to leave before GLaDOS comes up with another plan."

"Alright, then," Kayla replied as they started heading for the vent.

Just before Kayla was about to enter, however, Albina realized that something was wrong.

"Wait a minute," Albina said.

"What's wrong?" Kayla asked hovering in front of the entrance.

"There is no grating over the vent."

"So?"

"GLaDOS might notice, and if she does, then she is going to figure out that that is how we're getting around, we won't be able to use it anymore, and to top it all off, she'll find where we're hiding if she looks inside."

"Oh, well, that's not good. I'll go down there and find it."

"That will take too long. Besides, even if you did find it, we have nothing to hold it in place."

"What do we do then?"

"Just give me a moment to think."

Kayla hovered in silence while Albina looked down into the abyss below her and pondered in silence. It seemed that Sylvie was right after all. She had been careless without realizing it. Nevertheless, she knew that hating herself for it was not going to get her anywhere. Albina had to forgive herself and pray for the wisdom to know what to do next.

That was when Albina came up with an idea. She flew over the vent and covered it in a layer of ice.

"What are you doing?" Kayla asked. "I'll freeze in there."

"Maybe, but it'll make the vents less conspicuous than they are now," Albina said as she stopped flying down one end and turned around and flew down the other.

"How is that making it _less_ conspicuous? They're covered in ice. What is this accomplishing?"

"You'll see," Albina said as she flew down and added a layer of ice to the wall surrounding the door and a bunch of icicles onto the catwalks.

Albina next sat down on top of the ice-covered vents and started forming an ice vent grating quickly out of her own bare hands. Kayla flew up behind her and hovered over her shoulder to watch what she was doing. Within five minutes, she was done and admired it as it shined in her lap.

Albina had made it look as realistic as she possibly could in a hurry and still did a good job. From a distance, it was indistinguishable from the original. Albina smiled through her increasing fatigue and looked at Kayla.

"Do you understand what I'm doing now?" Albina asked.

"Yeah, if everything's covered in ice, then nothing really looks conspicuous," Kayla said in realization. "GLaDOS won't be able to tell the difference."

"And by the time it all melts, hopefully, she'll be preoccupied with something else," Albina said as she held the vent up so Kayla could have a better look.

"You're a genius, Albina," Kayla said as she flew around in front of her to look at it and snap a picture.

"I try to be," Albina said and then went silent while Kayla took several pictures.

"I got it," Kayla replied putting her iPhone back in her backpack. "Can we leave now?"

"Yes," Albina said. "Get inside the vent, Kayla. We're heading back. I just need to seal us in."

Kayla then flew inside the vent as she waited for her friend. Albina let go of the ice grating and lifted it up into the air above her using her hydrokinesis so that it did not fall. Albina then jumped off the vent and flew to where the entrance of the vent was. Albina looked over her shoulder and backed into it as Kayla moved over to her left to give her room. She rested her body against the back of the vent and used all her powers of concentration to line the grating up to the hole as perfectly as possible. It had to look convincing. Kayla was quiet as she sat in the cold and watched her work. After a few tense seconds, Albina lined the grating up to the vent just right and held it in place over the entrance.

"Kayla," Albina said without breaking her concentration. "Would you hold the cover there for me? I need to freeze it in place."

"Of course," Kayla said.

She used her telekinesis to hold the grating in position while Albina froze the vent grating in its place. When that was done, Albina finally breathed a sigh of relief. Her fatigue began rushing over her, and she rested her back on the back of the vent.

"Albina, that was amazing," Kayla said excitedly. "I never knew you could do things like that."

"You have never seen me make ice sculptures in the snow before?" Albina replied.

"I don't mean that," Kayla said shaking her head. "I mean seeing you think so strategically and working so effectively to take care of everything, not to mention the fact that you destroyed all those test chambers. You're so smart and so tough, just like a soldier! I'm impressed."

Albina smiled through her fatigue and said, "Thank you, Kayla. That means a great deal to me. I hope I can be a great soldier in the future."

"Anyways, we can't rest here," Kayla said anxiously. "We have to get back. Sylvie is going to be worried."

"I know," Albina said with a sigh as she sat up. "Let's go."

Kayla flew quickly in the direction they had come from. Albina created a trail of ice underneath herself with her feet and used her hands to create strong winds behind her that would propel her forward just behind Kayla. Although Albina was exhausted, she did not let out one complaint about it. She just prayed and focused her strength on getting back to the room. She begged God to give her the strength to keep out the word that was bringing back horrible memories in her mind.

It was a good thing they left when they did because GLaDOS sent another group of robots into the area to capture Albina. The five robots arrived about five minutes after the girls left. When one of them finally broke open the door using an axe, they found that they could go no further because of all the ice that was blocking their way on the floor. All they could do is look at the ice and use their eye cameras to see further ahead.

GLaDOS looked around as well as she could through their eyes and sighed in frustration. The ice demon was clever. She had left and had made it so that none of the robots would be able to get past the icicles to search for traces to where she had gone until they melted. GLaDOS found herself both annoyed and impressed. She had once again found a worthy opponent. Nevertheless, in the deepest depths of her mind although she refused to admit that she was feeling it, GLaDOS was slightly worried that perhaps she _had_ taken on more than she could handle. She quickly pushed the doubts away. She could handle these freaks. She had been in worse situations before and would find a way to deal with this problem as she had with every other. After all, she was a genius and solving difficult problems is what she was made for.

Meanwhile, Kayla and Albina made their way back to the room.

Kayla flew through the entrance of the room's vent with a big smile on her face eager to show Sylvie what she had seen. Albina landed on the ground with a tired smile on her face eager to sit down and rest. Sylvie sat on the couch with her arms and legs crossed giving them the stare eager to hear an explanation.

"What is it?" Albina asked in annoyance. "Why are you upset?"

"I asked you to hurry," Sylvie said. "It has been almost thirty minutes."

"Well, I apologize. I wanted to make sure GLaDOS could not find us so I took my time covering my tracks."

"You need to be more careful, Albina. She knows what you're doing and she is going to try to stop you from now on. You should have been more discreet so she wouldn't have found you. You might be able to escape her but she's still more dangerous and craftier than you realize."

"I am completely aware of the danger we are in and have done the best I can to deal with it, but contrary to whatever you think, I am not perfect, Sylvie. I make mistakes as do you. I could have done better and been quieter. I know that, but she was bound to figure out what I was up to sooner or later. From now on, I'll just try to be more careful in my vandalism, and you and Kayla try to finish your work faster. Yeah?"

"You should have seen it, Sylvie," Kayla interrupted to stop a potential argument. "It was amazing. I have never seen Albina use her power like she did. She dominated out there and did it with such style and ingenuity. She was like an ice goddess. It was unbelievable!"

"More like an ice demon or kikimora according to GLaDOS," Albina chimed in.

"What is that anyway?" Kayla asked.

"A kikimora is a female malevolent spirit of Slavic mythology who can be found in the home, forest or swamps," Albina said. "In Russian slang, it was also a term for a disagreeable, bad-tempered woman."

"So, like a bitch?"

"Exactly."

"You just need to be more careful for now on," Sylvie said gently to Albina as Kayla flew down next to her on the couch. "Alright? I do not want anything bad to happen to you."

"Alright," Albina promised. "I will."

Kayla said, "You don't have to worry, Sylvie. Albina is amazing. She'll be fine. Anyways, do you want to see what Albina did? I took so many pictures."

"Oui," Sylvie said with a sigh.

Kayla turned around and telekinetically pulled her backpack off her back while pulling her iPhone out. After that, she telekinetically handed it to Sylvie. When Sylvie got a hold of it, she found the photos and began flipping through them as P-Body and Alpha gathered around to get a look, too.

Albina walked over to the chair to the right where P-Body had been sitting while Kayla picked Terry up and put him on the couch.

Albina asked P-Body, "May I borrow the cushion on your chair?"

P-Body beeped in affirmation.

"P-Body said yes," Sylvie translated for him.

"Much obliged," Albina replied as she picked up the cushion.

Holding the blue cushion under her left arm, Albina walked over to Atlas sitting on the left and staring intently in Sylvie's direction.

"May I borrow the cushion on _your _chair?" Albina asked.

Atlas made no appearances of responding or of even having heard what Albina said to him. He continued to stare at Sylvie.

"Did you hear me?" Albina asked. "I asked if I could borrow the cushion on your chair. Hello?"

She waved her right hand in front of his face, but he still did not respond.

"Is there something the matter with your friend?" Albina said turning to P-Body in concern. "He's not responding."

P-Body looked up and beeped in annoyance. Then, he got up and walked over to Atlas. He made some beeping noises. When that didn't work, he slapped him on the side of the head.

Atlas responded immediately with a beep and looked at P-Body angrily. P-Body pointed to Albina. Atlas turned to face her.

"Now that I have your attention, I was wondering if I could use the cushion on your chair to sleep on," Albina said.

Atlas sat up and handed her the cushion.

"Thank you," Albina said.

Albina walked away with the two cushions as P-Body stared at Atlas. P-Body was really starting to wonder about Atlas. He had been acting strangely ever since that morning. Then for the rest of the day, all he did was stare at and pay extra attention to Sylvie. It was weird. P-Body had to figure out what was happening, especially since he was God's now and supposed to be living a new life, whatever that meant.

Albina walked up to the door where Alpha had been standing. Alpha noticed and walked up behind her. She turned around and crouched down so they were at eye-level.

"Tell me, friend. Are you tired of watching that door?" Albina said.

"It is no trouble," Alpha said firmly. "I have to watch over this door to protect you and all my new friends."

"Let me take over for you. I can make it so that no one can get through this door."

"Really? How?"

"Just watch."

Albina dropped her cushions on the floor and aimed her hands towards the door.

"You might want to move back a little," she said.

The turret backed up, and Albina shot ice out her hands to cover up the door with a thick wall of ice. Albina blocked made sure that the ice was nice and strong. That way, no one could come through it and harm them very easily.

Albina finished her work and smiled at the result. She looked down to see Alpha lean against her leg like a metallic cat.

"That was amazing," Alpha said as he gave her leg a hug. "Thank you! We're so much safer now."

Albina bent down and rubbed the top of his head. She then kneeled on the ground and set up the cushions on the floor so that they were lying right in front of the door. When she was done, Albina sat down on the cushions, rested her back comfortably against the frozen wall, and let herself sink into her thoughts. She had had a successful yet challenging day. Albina just had to keep her focus on what she needed to do and continue to not get distracted or make mistakes. She couldn't dwell on the word GLaDOS said, not if they were going to be successful and save Chelsea. She had to meditate and pray, to block it out as she had for so many years.

Alpha sat down to the left of her and awoke her from her thoughts. She turned to him and began stroking his body with her left hand like a cat. In response, he made a noise that sounded almost like mechanical purring, but it was really him giggling. Alpha had become more affectionate and personable from his interactions with the ladies and enjoyed the attention he was now receiving in return.

Meanwhile, the sun went down, and it continued to get darker and darker outside. Sylvie continued looking through all the pictures. She sat there genuinely impressed.

"I have to say, Albina," Sylvie began. "I am quite amazed. I have never seen you work like this with your ice before. You are more capable and creative than I realized. I guess I was wrong to worry so much."

"What did I tell you," Kayla said. "Albina is a beast! She can do anything."

"Well, I had better get us some food," Sylvie said as she sat up. "Albina, come on over here, and I'll get us some dinner. Albina?"

After another moment of silence, Sylvie turned around to see Albina sitting on top of the cushions with her body leaning on top of Alpha. She had been so tired that she fell asleep against the wall and fell on top of the turret without waking up. Her head was on top of his head. Alpha didn't seem to mind though. He just stood there supporting her weight.

"Shhhhh!" he whispered. "She's sleeping."

About an hour later when dinner was finished and done, the other two were, too. Kayla moved Albina so that she was no longer lying on top of Alpha but lying down on her cushions, and Sylvie and Kayla slept where they were before. P-Body and Atlas kept a watch over the room while Alpha was standing next to Albina's head to be the security if all else failed.

P-Body sat in his chair awake wondering what to do about Atlas. He was just sitting in his chair watching Sylvie sleep. P-Body suspected something was going on, something to do with Sylvie, but he did not know how to pursue him to find out about it or how to do it as "God" would want him to. It felt unnatural. Not once in their friendship had they ever kept anything from each other or had trouble reading each other's emotions, but now, P-Body was confused and not sure how to proceed.

But then, P-Body was struck with an idea. He got up and walked slowly over to Atlas. He tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, and Atlas looked in his direction. P-Body pulled out some old playing cards that he had found which were held together by an old rubber band from the space between his arm and his body. P-Body pointed to the cards and pointed to the bathroom to ask him if he wanted to play. Atlas hesitated for a second before he nodded.

"May I play, too?" they both heard a voice behind them ask.

They turned around to Alpha with his lower eye-shield pulled up in a way that made him look so cute and innocent. He just wanted to be included. P-Body and Atlas looked at each other and then they looked at him.

P-Body relented and nodded his head.

"Hooray!" Alpha said jumping up and down.

P-Body and Atlas simultaneously jumped on him to grab him and hold him down, causing Atlas to fall backwards out of his chair. They pressed their fingers to their faces and pointed to the sleeping women so that Alpha would get the message.

"Sorry," the turret said.

The two stood up and motioned for the turret to come to the bathroom with them. They used the bathroom to play in because it was the one place where they could go and turn on the lights without waking up the ladies or alerting anyone in the hallway of their presence. They walked in, turned on the lights, and then P-Body shut the door behind them.

Alpha and P-Body sat with their legs crossed on the floor. Alpha just stood there eagerly waiting for the game to begin. The way the game worked was kind of weird because P-Body had never seen a human card game ever be played before. He just found the cards in a desk and decided to keep them. The card game was a game that P-Body invented. It worked more like jenga than a real card game. First, he built a house of cards from the deck, and then everyone had to remove a few cards without knocking the whole thing over. That was much easier said than done especially with their clumsy hands and the tiled floors that mostly filled the facility. P-Body untied the cards as Alpha watched and Atlas stared into space.

"Why can't you talk?" Alpha said out of nowhere. "The turrets who shoot bullets can talk, GLaDOS can talk, and the cores can talk, but you can't talk. It makes no sense."

P-Body looked at him and shrugged. He did not know the answer to that question.

P-Body then painstakingly stacked the cards into a house of cards, and the game began. P-Body went first while Alpha watched since he didn't know what to do and pulled a few cards from the top.

Atlas was not paying attention at all. He was still staring off into space thinking about Sylvie. He did not even notice when it was his turn. P-Body had to tap him on the shoulder to remind him. Absentmindedly, he looked at him and grabbed a few cards off the side knocking over the whole thing.

"So, did he lose or win?" Alpha asked in confusion.

P-Body face-palmed, shook his head, and gave out a heavy sigh. Atlas was normally not like this at all. He was usually the one who was level-headed and aware and better than P-Body at this game. For him to be this absent-minded was not normal. P-Body decided that it was the right time to confront him.

P-Body moved in front of Atlas and shook his head all around. Atlas smacked him on the side of the head to make him stop. P-Body held out his hands asking him in his way what the problem was. Atlas shook his head to say that there was no problem. P-Body looked at him in such a way that implied that he could not be serious. P-Body then cracked the door open so that they could see Sylvie sleeping from where they were in the bathroom. He pointed to her and then he pointed to Atlas. Then, P-Body imitated Atlas. He made the dreamy looking expression on his face that he was making and gave a longing sigh. Atlas acted defensive and crossed his arms. P-Body thought for a minute, beeped, and got his attention.

P-Body then pointed to his head to communicate that he had an idea about what was happening. He left the bathroom and picked up the Bible that Sylvie let him read earlier. P-Body walked back in and opened the book to the beginning, to the part where Eve was created to be Adam's wife and partner. While they were waiting for the girls to return, Sylvie had told him that that was the first romantic relationship and the reason that in human culture men would leave their parents to pursue a woman. P-Body sat down and showed that passage to Atlas to explain the concept. Then he pointed to Atlas, he pointed to Sylvie, and then he made a heart symbol with his hands to explain that Atlas wanted to do the same thing with Sylvie. He was saying Atlas was in love with Sylvie

Alpha did not understand what the two were saying but he understood the heart symbol.

"Do you love Sylvie?" Alpha asked.

Atlas became more defensive then. He crossed his arm and gave out a negative beep.

"Mhmmm…" P-Body said.

Atlas gave out another negative beep.

"Mhmmm…" P-Body said again.

Atlas gave out another negative beep.

"Mhmmm…" P-Body said again.

Atlas finally gave out a mechanical sigh to show that he conceded. He held up his fingers and pinched them close together to symbolize a little bit.

"Ah hah!" P-Body said.

Atlas turned his head in time to see Sylvie toss and turn in her sleep and quickly shut the door.

Then, Atlas held his finger to face and said, "Shhhh!"

"So, you're in love with Sylvie?" Alpha asked.

Atlas nodded his head painfully.

He looked straight at P-Body and then at Alpha and pulled his finger to his face to show them that he wanted them to keep it a secret.

P-Body pulled his thumb up to show agreement.

"I can keep a secret," Alpha said.

Atlas relaxed against the wall.

"She has a boyfriend," Alpha said. "He's the one she wants to marry."

Atlas nodded his head to show that he knew.

"What are you going to do?" Alpha asked.

Alpha stared at the ground to communicate that he wasn't sure of what to do. He had never felt this way before. He did not know what to do about it. He rested his back against the wall, pulled his legs close to his body, and wrapped his arms around his legs. P-Body wrapped his arm around Atlas's shoulders. Atlas looked up at him and then he leaned on him for support.

"Is the game over?" Alpha asked.

P-Body gave a thumb's up.

"Can I leave?" Alpha asked.

Atlas sat up and pulled the door open to let Alpha out.

"Thank you," he said and walked out and back over to where the door was.

In the moonlight, Atlas got another glimpse of Sylvie. He sat staring at her for a moment. P-Body twisted his body over to see what he was doing and saw him staring at her. Then Atlas stared at the ground, shut the door, and curled into his former ball of depression. He knew that it could never be. She had already chosen someone else. P-Body wrapped his arm around his best friend. He for once did not know what to say. Romance was a new concept for him, too. The two of them sat for a long time in silence and eventually fell asleep leaning against each other's side for support.


	9. Chapter 9

That night, Chelsea woke up in a dark hospital room. She was in a hospital gown with an IV attached to her left arm and oxygen mask on her face lying in a bed without wheels. The room was completely dark. There were no windows. GLaDOS made sure of that. There was a locked door, a tiled floor, a bedside table and a bathroom to her left.

The first thing she did was feel her neck to make sure that her red-beaded necklace was still there. It was. Chelsea was relieved. She was afraid that GLaDOS might have taken it away in retaliation.

Chelsea took a moment to gather her bearings. Then she sat up, pulled her legs close to her, and rested her head on top of them. She still felt horrible. It was still hard to breathe. She still felt sore and weak. Furthermore, she felt angry. She was so tired of being sick. She was sick of the IVs and the hospital gowns and always feeling terrible. She was sick of knowing that she was a lab rat. Chelsea was tired of the fear, she was tired of the experiments, she was tired of being trapped, she was tired of being put to sleep, and she was tired of GLaDOS. It was all driving her crazy. She wanted to scream so badly. She wanted her freedom. She understood how her mother felt. Chelsea was scared and she was tired of being so. She did not want the life that GLaDOS had planned out for her. She just wanted to run.

"God, I'm happy that they're free," Chelsea prayed out loud while squeezing her head with her hands. "But when will it be my turn? I hate this place. I hate everything about it! I don't want to be here. I just want to leave. I'm sick of all this crap. I'm sick of her and her words and her plans. I'm going to go insane. Where is everybody? Why has no one tried to come after me yet? What has she done to them? Why does she have to be so evil? Why do I have to be here? Why can't I just be free? How in the hell did my Mom survive this place? I've only been here for three weeks and I'm feeling like I'm going to lose it. God, help me! I'm so scared. I'm tired of putting on an act for her. I need to be strong. But I don't know how much longer I can keep this up…"

"You have actually been here for just under four weeks now, not three," she heard the familiar voice said.

Chelsea looked up on the right side of the wall. There was a camera. In the dark, she had not noticed it.

Chelsea fell backwards on the bed feeling like an idiot. "Dammit," she said face palming in frustration. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

"No," said GLaDOS. "If I did that, your family might come to get you."

Then she added with a touch of spite, "…if they are even going to come after you at all."

"Shut the hell up!" Chelsea yelled viciously as she sat up. "They are coming for me. They love me. You could not possibly understand that. They will never give up until they find me. When they do, we are going to kill you together."

"Will you stop going on about that?" GLaDOS said. "I'm not going to let them get close to you. You might as well just give it up. They will not save you. You will be spending your whole life with me. Right now, I can tell you hate the idea of that, but in time, I think you might start to like it if you would give it a chance. What do you say?"

Chelsea could not think of a clever remark so she just flipped her off and curled up into a ball pulling herself under the covers so that GLaDOS could not see her.

"That's original," GLaDOS said sarcastically.

Under the covers, Chelsea came up with a quick plan. She pulled the pillow under with her and pushed it behind her. Chelsea then pulled off her mask and pulled her IV out. She stuck those things under the covers and then rolled off the left side of the bed silently so GLaDOS could not see her. This all happened in the space of about one minute.

"It's not like you to be quiet when you're angry. Why are you being so silent?" GLaDOS asked in amusement. "Are you trying to imitate your mother? That is so adorable."

Chelsea looked up through the crack of the door. There was light outside of it. The light lit up the crack of the door. She could see up the door where the lock was in place. Chelsea could reach it if she created a disc that was sharp enough to cut through in one slice. She created a disc and tested it on the bottom of the bed to make sure that it was sharp enough. It cut through to the top with no problems at all. Chelsea smiled in satisfaction.

"Are you already asleep?" GLaDOS asked in growing concern. "Is that why you're being so silent?"

Chelsea knew that it was time. She slid her disc through the crack between the door jamb and the door itself so that she could break the door open. She aimed and fired. The disc flew up to the lock and started to chisel away. It would be open in a matter of seconds.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked seeing the disc. "Stop that right now."

The disc was starting to cut through the lock, but Chelsea heard a noise and felt a shot being fired into her veins. She looked up to see a doctor robot injecting a syringe into a vein in her right leg.

"Not again," she thought as she fell asleep.

Chelsea woke up just an hour later lying in bed like before. Was that a dream?

"Why do you insist on acting so ungrateful to me just like your mother?" GLaDOS asked in annoyance.

Nope, that was not a dream.

"I've been nothing but kind to you," GLaDOS said.

"Kind," Chelsea asked incredulously sitting up and turning to the camera on her right side. "You have kidnapped me and my family, you dissected me like a lab animal, you forced my friends to test, you will be forcing me to test, you are forcing me to get married, you are forcing me to have a baby, and you are planning on doing God knows what with me when it's all over. You are making my life a living hell. You call that kind?!"

GLaDOS said, "I have been treating you better than all of my other test subjects. They would be envious of the care you are getting."

"Speaking of which, what is this room anyway? Is this my treatment room or something?" Chelsea asked looking around.

"No," GLaDOS said. "The room is a waiting place for you. The machine providing your treatment is currently being repaired so I am keeping you in here until it's fixed."

"Oh," Chelsea responded.

"Are you hungry?" GLaDOS asked. "I got you some food."

"What?"

A robot opened the door, then carried in a tray of food with legs, put it on top of her bed, and left quickly. Chelsea looked over the food. She did not know what half of it was and eyed it down suspiciously.

"What is this stuff?" Chelsea asked out loud.

"You have never seen this food before?" GLaDOS asked in surprise.

"Probably in movies and TV shows," Chelsea began. "I usually don't eat this in everyday life."

Chelsea removed her oxygen mask, looked closer at it, and recognized the broccoli. That was it. She had no idea what the rest of it was.

"What type of meat is this?" Chelsea asked poking the meat with her fork.

"It's a steak," GLaDOS said.

"You mean you killed a cow just to get this? That is such a waste. Think of all the milk you could get."

"You have never eaten a steak?"

"Except for the broccoli, I have never seen all this other food either."

"That is macaroni and cheese and a banana pudding for dessert. The drink is a fruit smoothie."

Chelsea's eyes grew wide with wonder.

"You know how to make cheese and macaroni?" she said. "That is incredible. Also, how the hell did you get a banana? Did you fly something all the way down to Costa Rica just to get it?"

GLaDOS was a bit shocked by Chelsea's words. This kid must have grown up in poverty that she was not aware of. No wonder she had to break into places to steal supplies. What kind of life had she known?

"What do you usually eat?" GLaDOS asked curiously.

"Deer meat, tomatoes, fish, apples, wild berries…" Chelsea listed off.

"You live off the land. That explains your slight body. Even before you lost weight, you were on the lighter side of normal. Now, you're practically a walking skeleton."

"Whose fault is that?" Chelsea replied in a sassy voice.

"Just eat," GLaDOS commanded.

Chelsea prayed and then she dug into the food that was in front of her. She had never eaten steak because the cows in the farm next to her hotel were kept alive for their milk instead of being slaughtered for their meat. People in the hotel complex were amateur farmers at best. They had no idea how to create macaroni or cheese. They did not have bananas because all imports to the United States had been cut off since the return of the Combines. Chelsea liked the food she was eating. She had no idea that people used to eat this well.

"I think the trouble with you is your perspective," GLaDOS said.

"What do you mean by that?" Chelsea replied with her mouth full.

"You hate this place because you think that you're a prisoner here. That is simply not true. I am realizing now that you have lived a very difficult life. You have never enjoyed the finer things. You have always had to steal to get the things you needed and worry about where your next meal was coming from. I probably did not help with your mother. She has probably been too emotionally unhinged to care for you properly. That would explain your violent behavior anyway. I suppose that is my fault, and I want to make it up to you."

Chelsea swallowed and said, "That's not true. Don't you dare talk about my mother that way! You don't know…"

"You don't have to keep defending her," GLaDOS began. "I know better. Anyways, I am going to make it all up to you now. You can kiss that life goodbye and forget all about it. I want to make it so that you don't have to worry about food anymore. You won't have to worry about safety anymore either. I will take care of you and protect you. I will also care for you better than any of your friends so that you never have to be lonely. All of your desires will be granted. You will be pampered like a princess here in a castle."

Chelsea finished eating her food, sipped some of the smoothie and placed it on the bedside table, lay back, and crossed her arms clearly not buying any of it.

"A princess?" she said. "A princess whose only job is to sit around, look pretty, get married, have babies, and do whatever the queen asks her to do?"

"You catch on quickly," GLaDOS said.

"Thanks but no," Chelsea said. "I am not your princess."

GLaDOS was frustrated. She was fulfilling every single need that a human could have according to her data base, but this teen still was not satisfied. What else could she do?

"Why are you so ungrateful?" GLaDOS asked. "I have taken great care of you. I have treated all your wounds, I have kept your body clean, I have treated your disease, I have been keeping you nourished, I have kept your nails trimmed, I have kept your hair straight, I have kept your teeth clean, and I have even done electrolysis on your face and body."

"You did what to my body?!" Chelsea exclaimed.

"I removed unwanted hair with a laser to make you look prettier. Anyways, I have done everything I could possibly do for you, princess. Since you belong to me now, I need you to tell me what else you could possibly desire."

"GLaDOS, your problem is that you think that I am like the people in the book _Brave New World_. You think that I will just be a satisfied little drone if you give me everything I need to be comfortable. I'm not like that. I don't just want to have my material needs fulfilled. I want to really live. I want to go into the ocean and swim next to a right whale. I want to hike in the Ozarks. I want to see Stonehenge in real life up close and take a picture right as the sun is shining through that special spot at the beginning of the summer. I want to see the elephants in Thailand. I want to take a picture of lightning striking during an electrical storm. I want to see Israel and walk where Christ walked. I want to fly next to a puffin in Norway. I want to go to Malaysia and smell the horrible scent of the _Rafflesia Kerrii_ flower. I want to see if the people in Sudan still suffer from lack of water and see if we can help them. I want to live out my life to the fullest that God wants it to be lived, GLaDOS, and I will never do that while I'm here! However, I will also be content with life if you would allow me and my family and friends to leave. None of us want to be here. I am not your princess, and you are not my mother!"

Chelsea started feeling short of breath and pulled on her oxygen mask to breathe.

GLaDOS sat there speechless. For once, she did not know how to respond to this kid. Chelsea lay down and turned away from the camera. A robot quickly came, removed the tray, and left the room.

"You're not better off out there," GLaDOS said in a tone that was increasingly soothing. "I don't know the specifics but I know that you have it rough out there, too. Is a life of thievery worth living either? I intend on keeping you here with me for the rest of your life. Trust me. It's better. I secretly think you were always meant to be here. Your powers come from this place. It is like your God meant for us to be together. This place will be hell for you if you let it be hell, but if you choose to comply, this place can be your castle. Why don't you embrace it? Those other people don't really care about you. If they did care, why have they not come back for you yet? You have sacrificed so much for them, and they are selfishly letting you suffer. You don't have to suffer anymore, princess. You are in a lot of pain physically and emotionally. I know that. You want someone to talk to. Most humans do in your situation. You have been acting so strong. You have been trying not to show me anything in you that even faintly resembles weakness. You have been trying to bottle it up and hold it all back. Please let it go and give up. Aren't you tired of fighting me? Embrace me as a new friend and new mother. I don't want you to hurt anymore. Talk to me, princess. I'm better for you than your God, too. You can actually see me."

Chelsea took off her oxygen mask, got up from the bed, and looked up at her. She was clearly very upset. GLaDOS was trying to manipulate her into building a relationship with her. Chelsea knew this. She was tired of this robot's deceitful tactics. Chelsea turned away and walked into the bathroom pulling her IV behind her. She shut the door behind her and locked it. Chelsea flipped on the light switch and after checking to make sure there were not any video cameras in the vicinity of the room she sank to the ground and allowed herself to relax into unhappiness.

"What are you doing in there?" GLaDOS asked.

"I'm using the bathroom," Chelsea replied angrily. "Is that alright with you?"

"Fine."

Chelsea actually did get up to use the bathroom. As she was washing her hands afterwards, she looked into the mirror. She was shocked by what she saw. Her chin was almost pointed it was so thin. Chelsea created a disc and used it to cut off the hospital gown since her IV was in the way of taking it off naturally. Her arms and legs were almost bone thin. They had very little fat on them. There were bandages covering everything except her left arm for some reason. On her left arm, Chelsea noticed numerous scars running all the way up from where she had been dissected. She pulled the gauze bandages off of her other arm, from around her waist, and from her legs until they were all gone. She stood there with thick layers of gauze wrapped around her breasts for modesty most likely and embarrassingly enough wearing an adult diaper. Chelsea was scared to see the rest of her body. She was horrified to see all the stitches that were still there from her medical examination. Chelsea could just imagine all the horrible things that they were doing to her while she was out. The stitches ran up her right arm and stopped just below her shoulder where her tattoo was. The stitches were all over her stomach, her legs, and just above her chest, too. What had they been doing to her? Add the fact that she had an IV in her left arm to her skinny body covered with stitches and she looked like a complete wreck. She was clearly in over her head in a horrible situation. Chelsea was so scared that she felt like fainting. She sank down to the ground again and started hyperventilating holding her hands over on top of her head with her legs against her chest. Chelsea was still sick with pneumonia and felt slightly nauseous from the food she had just eaten since her body had not processed solid food in weeks.

"Are you alright in there?" GLaDOS asked scaring Chelsea out of her stupor. "Have you been throwing up?"

"That is none of your business," Chelsea blurted out without thinking.

"You are _my _test subject. Of course, it's _my_ business."

"No! I'm fine. Just leave me alone."

"You sound upset. What is the matter? Why don't you come out of there and talk to me about it?"

"Go away!"

"What if I told you that your friends were out of here?"

"I would say that you're full of crap, but I'm sure you already knew that."

GLaDOS quickly thought over all the information that her program had on teenagers.

"What if I told you I had carbonated soda, ice cream, and video games?" GLaDOS said. "I could give them to you if would just come out."

"Just leave me alone!" Chelsea responded.

"You can't plan on living in there forever. Do you?"

"Look, you said that I would be treated like a princess here, and that I could have whatever I desired. I desire to be alone! So, go away!"

"Alright, fine. You can stay in there for a while, but if you're in there for too long, I will break down the door."

Chelsea stood up, opened the shower curtain, and turned on the water and the shower.

"You are not taking a shower," GLaDOS said like a mother at her wits end with her rebellious teenage daughter. "I had you cleaned today from head to toe. You do not need to be cleaned again. You might give yourself an infection. Hello? Are you even listening to me?"

Chelsea stepped into the shower and shut the curtain behind her although it jutted out a little bit because the IV was right next to the bathtub. The water was loud enough to drown out GLaDOS's voice and hopefully keep her from hearing her voice, too. That was all that Chelsea wanted. She wanted to be alone in silence. She turned on her right side and started to cry. Chelsea cried until she didn't have the energy to cry anymore. She was scared. She didn't want to face that android anymore. She didn't understand why God had seemingly abandoned her. She wondered what she should do.

Chelsea finally stopped crying long enough for a thought to occur to her. It was her fault that everyone was trapped here now. They all had the power to leave whenever they wanted to. It was her who was having the trouble. She didn't want to be there anymore.

"It's amazing," Chelsea thought to herself. "I can actually leave whenever I want to, too. It's crazy how little we think about it, but we can all leave this world in an instant. Life is so fragile. It can break in an instant, and then it will all be over just like that. God, you might consider it a sin, but I'm weighing all other options here. The others would be sad sure, but if I was gone, then they could escape. They would attack GLaDOS for revenge. They would have nothing to hold them back anymore. I could be their motivation. Better yet, I would watch them all from heaven because I would be with you. I'm sorry. I can't take it. I just can't fight anymore. I'm useless to them now."

Chelsea knew how to do it, too. If she broke the glass in the mirror and used it, GLaDOS would break the door down and stop her. She had to do it quietly. Chelsea would use one of her discs to carry out the act. She sat up and prepared to do it. She created a disc and prepared to leave this horrible world forever. Chelsea looked down one last time at her tattoo on her right shoulder. The tattoo was of two Japanese characters together they stood for God or Kami. She had received the tattoo from Roscoe as a present for her eighteenth birthday as both a love for her Japanese heritage and a symbol of her devotion to God.

A thought that was not her own came to her from above. The thought said this, "Suicide is a sin because it is the act of hopelessness. If you have me, you are never going to be hopeless no matter how bleak the situation appears. I'm here with you. Please don't give up hope. You don't have to end your life just to help the others. You are not fighting alone."

Chelsea cried some more tears, but this time they were tears of sorrow over her sin. God had not abandoned her just because her situation was bad. Her situation being bad didn't mean that at all. It was just a sign that God wanted her there a little while longer. He would make things right. Suicide was a sin. No matter what the circumstances were, committing it would be against the will of God, so she did not have to do it. There had to be another way. Besides if she did it, that would be letting GLaDOS and the evil of that awful place win. She could not do that. God understood her pain and was feeling it with her. She had to believe that. Jesus suffered, too. She felt like the arms of God were wrapped around her fragile body holding her in a warm hug. She felt like he was telling her that he was with her, and everything was going to be okay. Chelsea felt her hope returning. She felt her strength returning, too. She kissed the tattoo on her shoulder and lay back in the bath tub enjoying the hot water pouring on her face. She would help the others without ending her own life. There was a way. She was not alone and did not need to give up hope. However, she still was not strong enough to go back and face GLaDOS again. She just lay down and let the warmth of the water soak her body thoroughly for about another half an hour.

"You have to go back out there eventually," the voice from above said to her. "Otherwise, she will break down the door and drag you out."

Chelsea sat up and rested her body against the right side of the tub. She could faintly hear GLaDOS ranting about something. Although, she was not sure what that something was.

"She doesn't sound happy," Chelsea prayed. "She might be mad, but I had to be near you."

"I know that," the voice said.

"I feel so horrible," Chelsea said. "I want to feel better. I guess I've been spoiled having a doctor who could heal all my diseases with a touch."

"You won't feel this bad forever. I will heal you. I will give you the strength to do what you need to do. Her time has come, and she is not going to win."

"I still can't go out there. I just don't want to fight her. I'm not strong enough."

"You don't have to be. I will fight through you. I will be with you always."

"It really is her who is alone then. I almost feel sorry for her."

GLaDOS's ranting just got louder, but Chelsea felt a sense of peace.

"You have been in there for over an hour," she heard GLaDOS say. "You need to come out right now."

"Get up now," the voice from above said. "Hope in me. You will not faint. Just trust me."

"Alright," Chelsea responded to GLaDOS. "I'm coming out. Just chill."

As scared as Chelsea was, she did what God commanded her. His Holy Spirit gave her strength. She stepped out of the tub and grabbed a towel to wrap around herself. She used her discs to cut the gauze that was around her chest and slipped her adult diaper off since she didn't want to be wet when she was in bed. She quickly dried herself off. Chelsea was quaking with fear but she was strong because she felt God's arm wrapped around her shoulder. She looked down at her tattoo again and smiled. Chelsea wrapped her left hand around her IV and used her right arm to hold up her towel. She then took as deep a breath as she could and walked forward. Right before she reached the door, Chelsea looked in the mirror at herself one final time. She was so grateful that she had her tattoo now in addition to her red necklace. Both of these things were her symbols. Her tattoo was a symbol of God and her red necklace was a symbol of her family. They were both reasons for her to keep fighting. Chelsea looked forward, she unlocked the door, she twisted open the handle, and she turned off the lights. All was silence. Then Chelsea stepped forward.

The next thing she knew she was flat on her bed. A team of five doctor robots had grabbed her and laid her flat on her bed. They pulled off the towel, re-wrapped her breasts with new gauze, put her in a new adult diaper, and checked her stitches. They appeared to be examining them closely. Then they sprayed them with some kind of anti-bacterial spray and rewrapped them with gauze bandages. After that, one of them pulled the oxygen mask over her face and they filed out of the room.

"What was that about?" Chelsea sat up clearly pissed off and asked GLaDOS. "Could you tell your goons to not be so rough?"

"You took a shower, so I had to see to it that you were taken care of. I couldn't let you get an infection," GLaDOS said.

Then she continued, "You know you were in there for about two hours. During that time, you were very quiet. Frankly, I was concerned that you were going to attempt suicide. That is what people do when they lose hope. It may just be that you're wet, but you look like you have been crying. You probably thought about it. Didn't you?"  
Instead of being angry, Chelsea just smiled.

"You know, GLaDOS, it's mighty peculiar," Chelsea said. "Have you ever read the poem 'Tulips' by Sylvia Plath? She is stuck in a hospital and wants to let herself fall into the peaceful tranquility or death of the world around her. However, these stubborn red tulips keep her mind going. They give her hope where hope for life does not want to exist. The Spirit of God is like that for me. He lives inside me and no matter how ugly the world gets on the outside He lives inside me and will not let me give into despair. I will never give into the despair of this place. There is nothing you can do about it. I won't give into your nonsense either."

"You truly are your mother's child," GLaDOS said clapping a little bit to her 'speech.'

The clapping subsided as she continued, "It does not matter what I do or say. I will never be able to make you resist the stubborn course you choose to walk on. However, I mean to tell you that your little protest does not mean anything, princess. You are fighting a losing battle. Whether or not you are compliant, I will still have power over you. You are still mine and as long as I live, that will be true. I own you in this place."

"Why do you say that?" Chelsea asked. "I'm not your pet, your slave, or your daughter for that matter."

"You might as well be," GLaDOS said arrogantly. "What you turned out to be is because of this place and because of me, so I think that I have more of a claim on your life than anyone else does."

"No, you don't," Chelsea said. "Someone else does."

"What do you mean by that?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea pointed to her tattoo.

"I saw that when we were examining you," GLaDOS said. "Does your mother know that you have that ridiculous thing on your shoulder?"

"Yes, she does," Chelsea replied. "My mother was there when I got it on my eighteenth birthday."

"Do you even know what those characters mean in Japanese?"

"Yes, they stand for Kami or God in English."

"Impressive, but might I ask what your tramp stamp has to do with what we have been talking about?"

"I got this tattoo as a sign that I am forever owned by God. He directs my life and my future, and I am a member of his family. I let God take me a long time ago. This tattoo is a symbol of that relationship. It is a sign that I will never be owned by anyone else, including you."

"You are owned by a religion? Isn't that a bit obsessive?"

"I am owned by a relationship. Everyone is owned by something, GLaDOS. Every owner determines the course of a person's life. God is the best one you can have, because he is the one who frees you. However like all the others, it is one you determine for yourself. People need to determine who or what they are owned by. It is wrong to be forced to belong to someone else."

"As impressive as your deeply philosophical knowledge is, it means nothing to me. As far as I'm concerned, I own you, princess. I think you struggle with the idea, because you have been influenced by stories to think that it is a bad thing. You don't know me as well as you think. I can be kind. I'm not going to treat you like the others here. I will tend to your every need and see to it that you are taken care of. You are a special case after all."

"I don't care what kind of master you are. It's wrong to force another person to be subject to ownership."

"I'm doing it in the cause of furthering science."

"That is what you are owned by," Chelsea said as if inspired.

"Exactly," GLaDOS replied.

Just then, GLaDOS unexpectedly went quiet for about a solid minute. Chelsea did not know what was going on. Then, GLaDOS came back online.

"Guess what, princess?" GLaDOS said condescendingly. "The machine for your treatment has been completely fixed. It is time for you to go back now. However before you go, you need to drink the rest of your smoothie. I worked for hours over a hot blender to make that thing, so I want you to drink it all down until there is nothing left."

Chelsea reached over to the bedside table on her left and grabbed her smoothie. She rested her back against the back wall, and she started to drink the rest of the smoothie. It was actually really good. It tasted like strawberries and honey mixed together. However as Chelsea kept drinking it, she noticed something weird happening. Her head felt lighter and lighter. It was about half empty when she stopped for the first time.

"Don't stop," GLaDOS demanded. "I said that I wanted you to drink the whole thing. Now keep going."

Chelsea kept drinking the smoothie, but the lightheadedness only got worse. Oddly enough, her lungs felt like they were growing stronger, but she felt like she was losing consciousness. What was happening? When there was only one-fourth of the cup left, Chelsea stopped drinking again.

"I said not to stop," GLaDOS demanded again. "So, why are you stopping? I want you to drink the whole thing. Do it or I will personally kill every member of your family myself with neurotoxin."

"F-f-f-f-f-fine," Chelsea stammered out.

"Why am I having such trouble talking?" she thought to herself.

Chelsea drank the whole thing and barely managed to place the cup down when she felt her head spinning. She held her head in between her legs.

"I apologize for sounding so forceful," GLaDOS said insincerely. "I just had to make sure that you drank the whole thing so that I could be sure that you consumed all the medicine."

"Me-di-cine?" Chelsea stammered out lifting her dizzy head up in fear.

"I put medicine in your drink while you were taking your shower," GLaDOS said. "The medicine is meant to treat your pneumonia. However when tested on rats, it was also found to give the animals extreme drowsiness. It put them to sleep. I knew that you would never take it if I gave it to you in pill form, so I had one of my robots crush it into powder form and mix it into the smoothie. The dosage is high so you should feel the effects almost immediately."

Chelsea lost muscle control so she fell backwards on her bed. She tried to fight the drug even though she knew it was useless.

"Kis-ama!" Chelsea screamed at GLaDOS.

"Shhhhh," GLaDOS replied soothingly. "Don't yell at me. What would you have me do, princess? You would never have come quietly. I had no choice. Now, stop fighting the drug and just rest or you will feel even worse. I advise you to take the opportunity I am giving you to rest. You will need your strength later."

Chelsea lay flat on her back as her eye lids fluttered open and shut. Her mind was slowly fading to black.

Then she heard GLaDOS quietly laugh and say, "You know it's funny. For how much you have been talking about him, I have been showing more ownership over you than your God has. If he really cares for you as much as you think he does, why has he not done anything to show it?"

At this remark, a supernatural strength possessed Chelsea. She opened her eyes, sat up, and stared directly at the camera.

"His judgment is coming, GLaDOS," Chelsea said clearly. "Just you wait. It has already begun."

Then Chelsea fell backwards on her bed in unconsciousness. GLaDOS was slightly freaked out. How did that happen? For that moment, it was as if the drugs had no effect on her. Perhaps, Chelsea's God was real. If he could do that in just a moment, imagine what he could do in time if he wanted to. GLaDOS thought that in fear for a moment but then tried to shake off the fear. It was just a freak coincidence. It had to be. Anyways, the robots walked in and lifted Chelsea off the bed and onto a trolley. They gave her a new oxygen mask to wear and were preparing to wheel her back to treatment. GLaDOS stared at her tattoo, the symbol of another authority that she did not have. Unfortunately, the facility did not have the equipment to remove tattoos or to create new ones. The thing annoyed her, but GLaDOS could do nothing about it. GLaDOS looked at Chelsea and then stared at her bare unbandaged left arm. Then, she came up with an idea.

As the robots were about to wheel Chelsea away, she said, "Wait, before you take her to her treatment, I would like to do something to that left arm…"

GLaDOS gave the robots exact instructions on what she wanted them to do and then they rolled Chelsea out into the hall. As they made their way down the white fluorescent light lit hallways, a cockroach was walking along the ceiling. The cockroach saw them walking by and turned on his heels. He stared after them for a moment and then flew towards them as fast as he could. The robots were so busy wheeling Chelsea away that they didn't see him. The cockroach caught up with them and landed on the bed. He walked across the bed and up to Chelsea's face. He saw all her bandages and knew that something bad was happening. The robots then turned right into a dark room with a furnace in it. The cockroach quickly climbed under the bed and hid himself. He may not have known what was happening, but he vowed to not leave her no matter what happened.


	10. Chapter 10

Over the next week, the ladies continued to carry out their routine work. Kayla continued to map the vents while Albina more carefully destroyed test chamber after test chamber much to GLaDOS's irritation. However, Sylvie had the hardest job. She was absorbing all the map information about Aperture Science that she possibly could and it was more difficult than she had anticipated. The facility was so huge that she had a hard time getting all the information she could about it. The work was going frustratingly slow by her standards, but it was the best that she could do. In the meantime, she also kept tabs on all of GLaDOS's actions giving Albina missions of destruction just to slow the AI down. P-Body enjoyed helping her while Atlas continued to stare after her in sorrow and longing. One whole week passed in this way.

Meanwhile during that week, somewhere else deep in the facility, Roscoe and Brandon were continuing their trek to find their means of escape. They lived off of water and potatoes as they went through empty room after empty room in an effort to find anyone at all who they could help or who could help them. The portal gun definitely helped, but it could only do so much since they couldn't fly. However after searching for five days, they found the relaxation vault where Hugo was being kept. Brandon was disappointed. He wished that they could have found anyone else but Hugo. Brandon felt like he did not have the energy to deal with him.

"Dad, do I have to do it?" Brandon asked his father.

"Yes," Roscoe replied. "I know how you feel about this guy, but you have to save him. Now stop grumbling about it and do it."

It was no secret that Brandon was not that fond of Hugo. He found his dark and brooding nature to be very annoying. Why couldn't he just lighten up? Brandon was also annoyed by the way that Hugo sometimes lashed out at his sister or at other people. He thought that Chelsea was wasting her energy in being kind to him. He could be such a jerk at times. His only redeeming trait was that he was improving as a result of his relationship with Sylvie. He was still his brother in Christ, and he still had to love him as such. However most of the time, they avoided each other because Hugo did not really like him either. He found him to be way too judgmental.

"Get him out, Brandon," Roscoe said seeing Brandon hesitate.

Reluctantly, Brandon phased through the vault and dragged Hugo out. Hugo was a tall and muscular African man. He had flaming red eyes that glowed when he turned his flames on and black hair that he kept in braids. A moustache and a slight beard covered his face and chin. He wore the wedding ring of his father on a silver chain around his neck. He wore a grey shirt and black gloves because his hands were usually uncontrollably hot to the touch at all times. He also wore green cargo pants and black boots. His arms were also covered in black African warrior tattoos that he had found in a _National Geographic _magazine. His brown coat was still wrapped around his waist so they could be seen. Roscoe had done those, too. He smiled as he looked over his work.

Hugo was stirring and starting to wake up. Roscoe held him up and started shaking him.

"Wake up, Hugo," Roscoe said while Brandon stood off to the side. "Wake up!"

Hugo opened his red eyes, sat up, and looked around.

"Where am I?" he said. "Where are Sylvie and Albina?"

"Sadly, I can't answer the second question," Roscoe replied. "But I can answer the first one. We are in Aperture Science and we have to escape."

"And Chelsea?"

"GLaDOS still has her, but we will find her and the others. However, we have to get out of here now. At any time now, GLaDOS could turn on that camera over there and find us."

Hugo looked up at the camera and then stood up.

"You don't have any injuries so we can leave immediately," Roscoe said.

"Ok, let's go," Brandon said.

Hugo looked at Brandon, and his eyes immediately flashed with anger. He ran up to Brandon and pinned him by his neck against the wall of the chamber.

"This is all your fault," Hugo said angrily. "It is because of you that Chelsea is in danger! You should have protected her like a man! Now, she and all the others including the love of my life are trapped by that monster!"

"You're the one who's not acting like a man," Brandon said struggling under Hugo's hot hands. "You're beating me up when we could all be getting out of here. You really have straight priorities, man."

"If anything has happened to any of them, I will kill you."

"Let go of my son," Roscoe yelled while burning his hands on Hugo's hot left arm as he was attempting to pull him away.

Brandon phased through Hugo's arms and ran through him towards his Dad.

"Dad," he said. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Roscoe said as his hands healed themselves.  
Then turning to Hugo, he said, "You need to calm down. Fighting with my son is not going to get us anywhere. The ladies are alive and capable of watching out for themselves. If we use our energy to find them instead of fighting, we will get to them. Now, stop acting out and come on! Let's find our way out of here."

"I'll make a way out," Hugo said as he walked past them and pulled off his gloves and stuffed them into the pockets of his pants.

"You're quite feisty for a man who has been in hibernation for the past month," a menacing female mechanical voice said.

The trio looked up to see the camera mounted on the wall looking in their direction.

"It's GLaDOS," Brandon said. "We have to go!"

Brandon grabbed Hugo and Roscoe and ran through the wall. His hand was burning on Hugo's hot skin, but he was willing to grit his teeth and keep going. Hugo however shook from his grip and turned into a ball of fire. Then he flew up to the camera.

"Where are the others?" Hugo yelled. "Tell me! What have you done with Sylvie?"

"So, the blond one is your beloved," GLaDOS replied. "That's interesting! Don't worry. I have not hurt your girlfriend. Truth be told, I don't even know where she is. I don't know where the cripple and the ice demon are either, so don't ask. That's the bad news. The good news however is that I have you and I have found the two other subjects who had gone missing. Now along with the one I have now, that is four mutated test subjects. To complete the group, I need six more. I will find them eventually though. The other good news is that it looks like you are one of the more powerful ones. Your fire is incredible."

"If you hurt Chelsea, I am going to kill you."

"Your threats will not do any good. It is a bit late for that anyway. She is already in intensive treatment."

"You have sealed your own fate then."

"You think you can scare but you don't even know where I am."

"Let's go, Hugo," Brandon said holding his burnt hand towards his father who has healing it with his touch. "We will find the others and stop her if we just leave."

"I don't want you to go yet," GLaDOS protested. "You all just got here. There is so much we could talk about. We could talk about the blond for instance. How did you two meet? Are you outcasts out there? Is that why you got together? Neither of you are really normal, so that would explain a great deal."

"Shut up," Hugo said.

"Hugo, she is manipulating you," Roscoe said. "She is trying to stir you up so that you do something stupid. Now, come on."

"It is a bizarre relationship so you can't blame me for my curiosity. My question is about how it happened. Were you pen pals or something?" GLaDOS said.

Hugo listened to Roscoe. He landed on the ground and turned his flames off. He turned and walked away towards Brandon and Roscoe pulling on his jacket and his gloves so that he would not burn Brandon when they phased through the walls.

It was then that GLaDOS said something else.

"A long time ago, people would consider such relationships taboo you know. They thought that no white woman in her right mind would willingly fall in love with a black man. Such women were viewed as being insane. Honestly, I don't think they might not be far off. You can learn a lot about someone from the decisions they make. From her decision, I can tell that she is crazy but not because of your race per se but because of you in general. I can't see what she sees in you. It doesn't seem like she really needs you. What can you give her? You can't hold her. You burn anything you touch. All you're capable of doing is hurting physically and from that display emotionally it seems. You know what I think? I think your woman is either insane or really stupid. She might actually be both. No rational and sane woman would choose you."

Hugo turned his fire on again and started blasting fire in the direction of the camera. He took out all of his rage at her insult towards Sylvie on that robot's camera. Hugo blasted it for a solid minute. However as soon as he stopped to take a break, he looked up and realized that his flames had done nothing. Hugo was shocked.

"It is just as I thought," GLaDOS said condescendingly. "Your fire is beautiful, but it is like you useless. It could kill anything organic but nothing robotic. All of the equipment in this facility is resistant to heat of extreme temperatures. All of your fire does nothing, dragon. The only thing you're good for here is breeding."

"What do you mean by that?" Hugo asked angrily.

"We'll explain later," Roscoe yelled. "Let's go, Hugo! Now!"

Hugo was frozen in place for a second. GLaDOS took the opportunity to make a bunch of turrets appear out of nowhere.

"Hugo!" Brandon yelled.

Hugo immediately snapped back to reality and turned and ran. Brandon grabbed onto the sleeve of his jacket and onto his father's arm, and they phased through the turrets and into the wall.

"I guess I have nine missing now," GLaDOS said disappointed. "I don't need to worry. They will all have to make their appearances eventually and when they do, I will catch them all at once. I guess she does not have a mate anymore though. Oh, well!"

From inside her chamber, GLaDOS turned from the monitor watching Hugo's relaxation chamber to the monitor watching Chelsea's brightly lit treatment where she was lying unconscious with an oxygen mask over her face and almost completely bare of bandaging except on her right leg and her left arm where her IV was.

"Don't worry, princess," GLaDOS said to her tenderly. "Your mother will find you a new mate."

Meanwhile, the trio kept running throughout the empty railways of the hall. GLaDOS shut off the lights in there to make it much harder to navigate.

"Oh, crap," Brandon said.

Without saying a word, Hugo flew up in the air as a man on fire to guide the way.  
"Good job, Hugo," Roscoe said.

Hugo led the way for them, and they were able to see the whole time they ran. After running for a while, Roscoe had an idea.

"Hugo, why don't you fly us up while Brandon phases us through?" Roscoe said. "If you do that, we can get off this floor and get away from GLaDOS much more quickly. Your flames may burn us, but we would be able to get around a lot more quickly. I can always just heal the two of us when we're done. If you fly fast enough, we shouldn't get burned that badly. What do you say?"

"Put these on," Hugo said throwing one of his gloves to Roscoe and the other glove to Brandon. "If you wear them, the fire shouldn't burn you."

The two obeyed quickly. Their hearts beat faster as they heard the sound of turrets activating in the background. The robots were coming after them. Hugo grabbed the right hand of Roscoe and the left hand of Brandon and flew upwards. He was right. The two did not get burned.

"Where do I go?" Hugo asked.

"Fly straight up," Brandon said. "I'll get us through."

Hugo headed towards the ceiling at full speed. As he flew upwards, he passed through a dark open space with hundreds upon hundreds of feet of the blue and grey backs of panels. Hugo looked around amazed at the size of the place that was only lit up by him. He was coming closer and closer to what appeared to be a really large box.

"Aunt Chell said that there was a roof to these boxes," Brandon said. "We can stop on it for the night."

Hugo flew faster and faster towards the testing chamber box. He had to have faith that Brandon would do what he said he was going to do or else he would just run into the box and probably drop the both of them. Just when Hugo was about to hit the box head on, Brandon turned his phase on. Hugo's head went through the box and he pulled his two passengers through with him. He looked around as he flew through the testing chamber. Thankfully, it was empty. The clinically white walls were exactly as Chell described them. Hugo felt sick with anger knowing that it was this place that ended the lives of thousands of people. He stopped looking around and looked at the ceiling as he flew straight towards it. Brandon phased them through that too, and they settled on the roof. Hugo set his passengers down and turned off his flames.

Hugo turned around, walked towards the edge, and sat down with his legs hanging off the end.

"Thank you, Hugo," Brandon said. "That was incredible!"

Then turning towards his Dad, he said, "Flying sure is useful. I wish I could fly. If I could, we would be out of here a lot sooner."

Roscoe looked at him and said, "You can change your density to whatever you want it to be, and you are complaining? Shut the hell up, son!"

Roscoe looked at his watch. It was only 8pm, but they were all already tired. So, they decided to go ahead and prepare to get some rest. Hugo in the meantime continued to sit on the edge of the box and stare into the abyss below him absorbed in thought. He sat like that for over an hour. Roscoe and Brandon looked at him and pondered over what they should do for him. Finally, Roscoe came up with an idea.

"Brandon, I think you should go talk to him," Roscoe said quietly.

"What good would that do, Dad?" Brandon asked quietly. "He will probably just chew me out or try to kill me."

"Maybe Chelsea has been right about him. Maybe you just need to give him a chance. Just try it. What's the worst that could happen? If he burns you, I'll just heal you."

"Why can't you do it?"

"You two are the ones who hate each other. You need to work on your relationship."

Roscoe handed Brandon one of Hugo's gloves to hand back to him. Gingerly, Brandon walked to the edge of the roof of the testing chamber where Hugo was sitting. Hugo did not even acknowledge his presence. Brandon was nervous, but he said a quick prayer and took the plunge.

"Hey," Brandon said as he got down on one of his knees. "Here are your gloves back."

"Thank you," Hugo said turning around and grabbing them to put them on.

Brandon turned around to look at his Dad. Roscoe motioned for him to go on.

"I also wanted to say that I'm sorry about what I said about you not being a man," Brandon said. "That is not true. You really saved our necks back there. I just wanted to say thanks."

Brandon quickly got up and started to walk away, but Hugo called his name.

"Brandon," he said. "Don't go. I have something to say to you, too."

Brandon stiffed up waiting for some kind of insult.

"You were right," Hugo said surprisingly. "I am the one who's not being a man. Back there, I let my feelings take control like Chelsea and Sylvie told me not to. I was picking a fight with you instead of trying to escape, and I almost got us killed. I'm sorry."

Brandon was shocked by his remorse. Hugo always seemed like a tough guy who tried to be too serious for his own good. Brandon sat down next to him. He didn't say anything, but Hugo continued to talk.

"You know, before this happened, Chelsea told me that I was an emo, macho asshole," Hugo said.

"That sounds like something she would say," Brandon said with a smile.

"She said that I am so wrapped in my own emotions that I don't let other people in. I keep them all at a distance and secretly judge them because they are not doing what I think they should do. She said that I needed to change, open up to people, and try to understand them or else I would live my life out as a loner like Batman. The more that I have thought about it the more I have realized that she is right and that I want to change."

"Why do you act that way if you know that it's bad?"

"Old habits. I wouldn't expect you to be able to understand. I have had to be strong my whole life. Being strong is the only way to keep the people I love safe. If I was weak, then I wouldn't be able to protect them."

"What do you mean by that?" Brandon asked somewhat angrily with Hugo's tone.

Hugo looked down as he was clearly having a really hard time finding his voice to confess.

"So many people in my life have died," he began. "My mother died giving birth to me. My father and stepmother were murdered by aliens. I vowed from then on to do all I could to protect the people I cared about. If I got weak, then more people would die. At the time, the only person I cared about was Albina. She was just a scared little girl. I had to protect her. After we found your congregation, Chelsea reached out to me almost right away. I also fell in love with Sylvie. I vowed to protect them, too. But you know what? That robot is right. I am useless to them. I can't stop anything bad from happening to them. In fact, I am more useless than she thinks I am. When I marry Sylvie, I won't be able to give her children. I burn anyone I touch with my skin. Perhaps, they are all better off without me. I feel so pathetic because I can't do anything for them or anybody. All I do is hurt people."

"I know how you feel," Brandon said. "I feel guilty about Chelsea. She wanted to leave the property as soon as she arrived because she had a bad feeling about it. You're not the only one who has let people down."

"You feel bad, too?" Hugo looked at him and said in surprise. "By your demeanor before, I thought you didn't care. That was why I got so angry."

"Of course, I care. I want to save Chelsea more than anything. I just know I have to stay calm or else I'll go insane here."

"That makes sense. I guess I am an asshole. Chelsea and Sylvie were right. I do make assumptions about people too quickly."

"I'm wrong, too. I made assumptions about you. I thought that you didn't care about anyone. I thought that you were just using people for their sympathy. I'm sorry."

"I am no better, Brandon."

"You are better than me in one way. You at least have the ability to tell the woman of your dreams that you love her. I don't even have the guts to let on to Chelsea how I feel."

"Why have we never talked like this before?" Hugo asked thoughtfully.

"Like I said before, I'm a prejudiced bastard and I didn't think you would be willing to talk to me," Brandon said.

"I am kind of scary."

"Kind of? With those red eyes and your hot skin, you're like a dragon!"

Hugo smiled and replied, "Do you think we could try it out? Being friends? I have never had a real male friend before."

"We could try it," Brandon said resting his hand on Hugo's shoulder. "I just have one condition. Don't try to kill me anymore."

"I have a condition, too," Hugo said. "Don't touch me."

Brandon quickly removed his hand from Hugo's shoulder.

After talking for a little while longer, Hugo and Brandon walked back to where Roscoe was. The trio continued to talk late into the night and for the first time, Hugo started connecting to men outside of his family. The next morning, the trio flew through the wall and continued to find their way up.

Meanwhile, Chell, Pastor Roberts, and Zaki had been wondering around Aperture Science for a while. It took them a while to break in because GLaDOS kept sealing off all the exits. After trying every entrance they could find for two days, they hid in the woods for a while, long enough for GLaDOS to let down her guard hopefully. During that time, Pastor Roberts and Zaki grabbed some more supplies from the outside while they figured out what to do next. Chell stayed near the entrance waiting for GLaDOS to take the seal off of the door. Finally after waiting for two more days, it happened. GLaDOS took the seal off of one of the doors. Pastor Roberts caused all of the cameras to short circuit so that none of them were working, and they ran in. Once they were inside, they ran around for one day trying to find their way to anybody from the incomplete maps that Zaki was able to get from talking to Sylvie. They really wished that Sylvie could get all the maps in her head faster so that they didn't have to wander around so much, but there was nothing they could do about that. In order to advance faster, Pastor Roberts would turn into a volt of electricity and travel through the circuits and explore the rooms ahead to be sure they were safe. Then once he was done, he would return with news. Chell was the most determined out of all of them in her quest. She hardly ate or slept. Zaki supported her desire to undertake her quest but worried about her health as much as he worried about the well-being of his daughter. Zaki read Chelsea's mind periodically to keep tabs on her. He knew about her suicide consideration and didn't dare tell Chell about it. Poor thing! She had endured more kinds of torment than her mother ever had to endure. Chell may have been held against her will for years and forced to test, but she was never worked on like Chelsea had been.

Anyways, the three of them were stopping for dinner on the fifth day, but Chell was not hungry. She was too worried about all her kids especially about Chelsea to eat.

"Chell, I know what you're thinking, but you have to eat," Zaki said.

"I'm not hungry, Zaki," Chell said quietly and nervously looking around her for signs of any trouble. "Now, hurry up, so we can go."

"Babe, you need to eat," Zaki said.

"I'm fine. Really!"

"He's right," Pastor Roberts said. "You should listen to him. If you don't eat, you're not going to have the energy to save anybody."

Chell finally conceded and grabbed a squirrel meat sandwich from Zaki. She ate the whole thing very quickly and drank some water. She was starting to relax a little bit when she heard a noise and stiffened up immediately.

"Did you hear that?" Chell said.

"Hear what?" Zaki said. "What did you hear?"

Chell stood up and walked in the direction of the sound. She heard the sound again. It was a beeping noise like the sound of a heart monitor. It sounded like one of the machines that Chelsea was attached to when Chell saw her last. Could she possibly be nearby? Chell walked a short distance down the hallway but not out of the sight of her husband and her pastor. She walked up to six feet away when Zaki got up to follow her. She stopped for a second to hear the noise again. It was getting louder. She continued to walk. Pastor Roberts got up and followed after them. Chell walked fourteen feet further and turned left. The noise was coming from that room. She turned the knob of the door and pushed it open. Chell walked in alone with Zaki and Pastor Roberts standing behind her in the hall.

The room was an office with a monitor, a desk, and a desk chair. On this monitor was a picture of Chelsea sleeping in a hospital bed with an IV and a heart monitor attached to her. She was lying under the cover of darkness. Only her left arm this time was covered in gauze bandages. She still looked thin.

Chell heard the door behind her shut immediately. She jumped and turned around. Zaki was pounding on the door.

"Chell, what is happening?" Zaki said anxiously. "Chell?"

Chell tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. She had walked into a trap. Chell looked above the monitor and saw a white camera with a red eye staring right at her.

"Finally, we meet again," the all too familiar voice said. "You are a difficult human to reach you know. I let you in, but I had to go all over the facility just to find you. I told you to go away, but I knew that you wouldn't listen. You are too stubborn for that. Also according to my research, most mothers feel an abnormal maternal connection to their children. Your maternal instinct would not allow you to let go of her. Maternal instinct is very interesting. According to scientific research, a mother's ears are keenly tuned to the sound of their children. I thought that I would test it out by playing the sound of her heart beating for you to hear. I thought that might get your attention."

"Don't you dare hurt my wife, you monster," Zaki yelled from the other side of the door.

"Will you be quiet please?" GLaDOS said to him. "I'm not going to hurt your wife. I just need to talk to her alone for a minute without interference."

Then turning to Chell, she said, "I see why you chose him. He's as persistently annoying as you are."

Chell did not say a word but turned to look at the monitor. Her heart was broken to see the condition of her suffering child. She touched her hand to the screen.

"Chell," Zaki asked telepathically. "I can hypnotize her. Don't worry. I'll get you out of there."

"Don't do it yet, Zaki," Chell replied telepathically. "I want to figure out what she wants. It might help Chelsea or the others."

"I bet that you're wondering why I have trapped you here," GLaDOS said. "I wanted to talk to you about your daughter preferably without the attention of the other two imbeciles."

Chell looked up at the camera showing that she was ready to listen.

"Your daughter is special, Chell," GLaDOS said. "Most parents think that about their children, but it's not true. It's only wishful thinking. However, this girl is really special. She is the living example of how exposure to the radiation of this facility can change a species. So you have to understand that I can't just let you walk away with her. She is the best thing that you have ever produced with your pathetic life. I'm sure that you agree. She will be the gateway to all kinds of scientific discoveries. It is obvious that you care about her. You defied me again just to save her. However right now, you and I need to work together. Your child is dying. She needs blood and transplants from a living human. From my records, I have learned that you two have the same blood type. You would be an ideal candidate for her. You and I do not agree on her custody arrangements. But with your help, I could save her. Just say the word, and we'll work together to help her."

GLaDOS paused for a moment.

"Your child is dying in my custody, but you still stay silent? Chell, what will it take for you to finally talk? Do you value your stubbornness more than your child?!"

Chell still refused to speak but glared at her for a moment. She had tears in her eyes. She didn't want her daughter to die. She would do anything for that child even if she had to kiss up to her worst enemy. Chell didn't want to speak up, but she had no choice. She finally cracked.

"I'll go through with it," Chell said.

"What?" GLaDOS asked clearly taken aback in surprise at finally hearing the voice of her worst enemy.

"Chell, no!" Zaki screamed.

"Well finally, it's about time that you said something to me," GLaDOS said.

"What do I have to do to save my daughter?" Chell asked.

"Just follow my robots and they will take you to where she is so you can help. We will put you under and then perform the operation."

A side panel of the wall opened up, and two doctor robots beckoned to Chell to follow them.

"Chell, she's lying," Zaki exclaimed. "She wants to dissect you to see how the radiation has affected your body! Chelsea isn't dying! She just wants you!"

"What?!" GLaDOS screamed. "How do you…"

The robots tried to grab Chell, but she pushed them away and Pastor Roberts blasted his electricity through the door causing it to short circuit. The door fell down allowing Zaki and Pastor Roberts to run in. Pastor Roberts blasted his electricity towards the robots causing them to short circuit and explode out of existence. Chell was wondering why GLaDOS wasn't saying anything else. She turned around to see Zaki staring right into the camera without breaking eye contact. He stood like that for a solid minute then grabbed Chell and ran out the door with Pastor Roberts following close behind them. Zaki stopped right on the other side of the wall separating the room from the hallway. He stopped and pressed his ear against it. The other two stopped, too.

"George," Zaki said. "You short-circuited all the other cameras on this floor. Right?"

"Of course," Pastor Roberts said.

"Zaki, what is going on?" Chell asked.

"Shhhh…" Zaki said. "She's regaining consciousness."

The trio could hear the camera move on the other side of the wall. Then they could hear GLaDOS's voice over the PA system in the room.

"What in the world?" she said. "What is going on? Why am I looking at this room? Oh, yeah! The trap…I guess it didn't work. Alright…"

Then the speakers went down. Chell and Zaki looked at each other and smiled the largest smiles that they had smiled in at least a month.

"Holy shit, Zaki," Chell said. "What did you do?"

"I looked into her mind," Zaki said. "I made her forget what had just happened. I was afraid that it would not work, but it did. Thank God!"

Chell and Zaki hugged it out in happiness.

"I'm so glad I found you," Chell said. "God has been so good to me."

"It gets better," Zaki said excitedly. Chell let go of him and looked in his face as he continued. "When I was in her mind, I saw where Chelsea was! I saw where the test subjects were, too! All of our people except Chelsea are free. I figured that out! We can do it! We can save all of them! I even know how to get there!"

"Oh, Zaki," Chell said smiling so much that she was practically crying. "God is with us. We will save them! We will save all of them."

Zaki lifted her up in the air and swung her around in his arms like they were still in their twenties. Chell laughed with joy at their blessing. Then Zaki set her down, and they shared a long kiss.

Pastor Roberts was not really a talkative person, so he responded with a smile and said curtly, "We are getting support from God. It's a sign that we should keep going."

"I haven't felt this happy since before this all began," Chell said still holding Zaki in a warm embrace.

However, she slowly let go and looked at her husband.

"Zaki, honey," Chell started. "Lead the way."

"Chell," Zaki began putting his hand on her shoulder. "The entrance to where all the humans are stored is not far from here, but the chamber where Chelsea is being held is all the way on the other side of the facility. Where do you want to go?"

Chell looked up and replied very calmly, "The answer is obvious. Isn't it? We should go after the other humans since they are closer. Contact the others and tell them where Chelsea is so that they can go find her. Find Roscoe. He could heal her, and get her back in order. Then they could all come down and help us. We could fight together."

"That is a very smart idea, Chell," Pastor Roberts said.

"I will contact Sylvie," Zaki said.


	11. Chapter 11

Hugo, Roscoe, and Brandon got the message from Zaki and Sylvie. They were to meet up with the others and get directions from Sylvie to find Chelsea. They could find Sylvie by following the directions in the vents that Kayla had been marking up all week. Their task now was to find a ventilation system.

After their night of rest on top of the testing chamber, Hugo flew Brandon and Roscoe to a pathway grating that looked promising. After walking for almost the entire day, they came to a wall.

"Great," Hugo said. "A dead end!"

"Not necessarily," Brandon said walking past him.

He got up on the railing of the grating and phased his head through the wall in order to get a good look inside. What he saw was shocking.

"Holy shit," Brandon said pulling his head back. "You two need to see this. You are not going to believe it!"

Roscoe and Hugo got up on the railing, Brandon grabbed their arms, and their heads phased through the wall, too. They saw the ice chamber that Albina had created. It was still lit up from the lights on the ceiling and absolutely beautiful.

"Your sister has really outdone herself this time," Brandon said. "Why do you think she did this? GLaDOS must have been pissed."

Hugo threw the rest of his body through the wall, turned on his flames to fly, and landed on the ground. He pulled off his gloves and created a fire that melted the spiked ice on the ground around him. With that done, Hugo pulled on his glove once again and knelt down. He still could see the broken test chambers all the way down to the bottom. Roscoe and Brandon were still standing at their previous positions watching Hugo.

Hugo finally looked up to them and said, "It's just as I thought. Albina destroyed the testing chambers and covered them in a layer of ice that must be thousands of feet thick."

"That's incredible," Brandon said looking around. "Maybe GLaDOS is right, and your sister really is an ice demon."

At that remark, Hugo blasted a ball of fire in Brandon's direction. Brandon phased himself and his Dad right back through the wall in order to avoid it. After that happened, Brandon and Roscoe phased through the fall and landed on the icy floor right next to Hugo.

"What the hell was that?" Brandon said walking towards Hugo. "I thought we agreed that we could be friends on the condition that you did not try to kill me anymore."

"I was not trying to kill you," Hugo said. "I was just trying to tell you to not insult my sister!"

"It was a joke."

"You shouldn't call people names for the sake of making a joke," he said walking towards him with his boots crushing the broken shards of ice beneath his feet. "It's wrong. Besides, ice demon is the name that GLaDOS gave her. I don't want her to bear that name. I don't want her to think of herself as a monster."

"Since when do you care? You were insulting her the night before all this happened."

"I learned that it was wrong. She told me that she didn't want to be insulted like that anymore. I told her that I wouldn't insult her like that, and I would make sure that no one else insulted her like that either. I intend to keep my word, so shut up!"

"You let Chelsea insult you."

"I did because she was doing it to build me up in some way. I was being an emo, macho asshole. I needed to be told that. You're just doing it because you think it's funny."

"You know, Brandon," Roscoe said. "That is a jerk thing to do. You could stand to be more respectful to people."

"You're taking his side now?" Brandon turned to him and asked him incredulously.

"Brandon, I want you to be able to be honest with you," Hugo said. "As strong and resilient as my sister is, I know that she still can be hurt. I don't want the words of that monster to stick with her. I don't want her to think of herself as an ice demon. Understood?"

Brandon was astonished. He had no idea that Hugo cared for the honor of other people that much. He was becoming to him less and less of the emo boy that he thought he was and more like an honorable man who would die to protect a lady's honor. He really had misjudged him.

"Okay," Brandon said. "I get it. I won't refer to Albina as an ice demon anymore. I'm sorry!"

"Thank you," Hugo said. "Now, let's get out of here."

"We have to find a vent," Roscoe said.

Suddenly, Hugo looked up and flew to the other side of the room without saying a word. He had seen from where he flew in before the ice balcony and the ice stairs and flew forward in order to check them out. The tall icicles blocked them from the views of the others. Hugo turned his flames off and landed on the top of the ice stairs. He looked up, and he saw the ventilation system covered in a layer of ice. That was where they needed to go. Hugo turned his flames on again and immediately flew back to the others. Meanwhile, Roscoe was talking to his son.

"You know, son," Roscoe said. "I think having Hugo as a friend might be good for you. He could teach you some manners."

Brandon smirked at him and said very sarcastically, "If you love him so much, why don't you just adopt him?"

"I thought I already did."

"Where that guy go off to anyway?"

Just then, they watched Hugo fly back and land in the middle of them.

"Where'd you go?" Brandon asked.

"I went to see what the rest of the room looked like," Hugo replied. Then he pointed to the other side and said, "On the other side of this room, there is a ventilation system covered in ice. That is probably how Albina got out of here. If we get into the vents, we will find Kayla's markings and be able to find the others."

"That's awesome! Let's go!"

Hugo handed the two his gloves once again, and he picked them up to carry them across the room.

While they were flying, Brandon started talking.

"Hey, Hugo," Brandon said. "I was thinking. You really need to calm down and stop acting so serious."

"You are bringing this up now because…" Hugo replied in annoyance.

"You're like a dragon. You're always burning with rage and anger. You're strong, but you will be miserable if you're always prepared to be mad at the world. You need to learn how to laugh and cut loose. You don't need to take everything so seriously."

Hugo was thoughtful for a second and then he understood. He smiled and then he dropped Brandon. As Brandon fell to the floor screaming towards the pointed icicles, Hugo flew over him, grabbed his hand, and continued flying once again as if nothing had happened.

"Dude," Brandon yelled in a panic. "What the hell was that?"

"You're too serious all the time," Hugo replied imitating Brandon. "You need to cut loose and just relax. Try not to take everything so seriously."

Roscoe could not stop laughing.

"Shut up, Dad," Brandon replied.

"Don't talk to your father that way," Hugo said.

"He's joking, Hugo," Roscoe replied. "He's not trying to disrespect me. Brandon has a point. You do not have to look at life so severely. Life is not perfect, but it's okay to have joy. The world sees it as naïve, but we know that these trials that we face are making us more like Jesus and more ready to change the world. I think in his clumsiness that was what Brandon was trying to say. We don't have to let life make us bitter."

Hugo nodded and smiled to show that he understood. He started to feel more joyful than he had in a long time. He was happy to be making some new friends. Hugo continued to fly forward until they reached the ventilation. He then set his passengers down and got his gloves back from them. Brandon looked at the ice stairs and the ice balcony that went around the room.

"Albina is an amazing architect," Brandon said. "This is absolutely incredible. I wish I had a camera to take pictures with."

"The grating looks frozen shut," said Roscoe. "Hugo, can you melt it off?"

"I could, but it looks like she set everything up in such a way that GLaDOS would not be able to follow them. I don't want to do anything to reveal that we were ever here," Hugo said.

"I'll just phase us through," Brandon said turning back and walking over to them. "It might be a tight fit, but we can manage it."

"I'll fly you up there," Hugo said handing him a glove.

"That won't be necessary. Dad, could you give me a boost?"

"Okay," Roscoe replied getting on his hands and knees on the floor.

The ventilation system was not but 7 feet up from where the balcony floor was, so Brandon thought he could reach it. He was right. Brandon climbed onto his Dad's back, and he phased the upper half of his torso into the vent. Brandon then pulled the rest of his body in. Roscoe got up rubbing his sore back as it regenerated back to normal.

"You know, son," Roscoe said as he was rubbing his back. "You're lucky that I can regenerate like Wolverine or else your fat ass would have broken my back."

"What are you talking about?" Brandon asked smiling phasing his head through the side of the ventilation. "I'm not fat!"

"You might as well be with how much you weigh! You could have killed me! Owww!"

Hugo chuckled to himself quietly.

"Dad, do you want me to pull you up here?" Brandon asked.

"With all you have put me through, I suppose that it is the least you could do," Roscoe said.

"Hugo, could you give me a hand?"

"Of course," Hugo said.

Brandon bent over and grabbed his Dad by the arms. Hugo lifted up his legs and made it easier for Brandon to phase him into the vent. After that, it was finally Hugo's turn.

"Oh, no," Brandon said. "How are we going to get Hugo in here without melting the ice on the vent?"

"I'll just do it quickly," Hugo said. "Do you see the ice on the wall back there? It didn't melt because I went through it quickly enough so that my flames didn't touch the ice. Don't worry. It'll be fine."

"Alright," Brandon replied.

Hugo handed Brandon a glove for his left hand, then he phased him through, too.

They were now all inside the vent, and all had enough space to sit up. However, that was about it. Hugo and Brandon were ready to go, but Roscoe was staring in one direction without blinking. Brandon handed Hugo his glove, and he looked at him in confusion.

"Dad," Brandon asked poking his shoulder. "What is happening?"

"Roscoe," Hugo asked putting on his left glove again.

Roscoe responded by holding up his hand like he was talking on the phone or something. He sat in the vent like that for about a minute before he responded. Roscoe finally shook to his senses and started to blink a lot.

"Dad," Brandon asked. "What happened?"

"I just got a message from Zaki," Roscoe replied. "I have two pieces of good news to share with you."

"What?" Hugo said.

"First of all," Roscoe said. "They were able to find their way down to the vaults where all the other human test subjects were being kept, but they need us to find the others before we can help them."

"And the other news?" Brandon asked.

"Jeffrey has found Chelsea," Roscoe said.

"What?" Brandon replied.

"He has been wondering around the facility since we got here, but he has finally found her. He apparently has been watching her for the past week. Chelsea has been in a bad condition, so Jeffrey has been watching and waiting for her to get better so that he could help her escape without endangering her," Roscoe said.

Brandon was relieved. Jeffrey and Chelsea were close friends, so he knew that he would take care of her. He was his trusted friend, too. However, he could not but feel slightly jealous. Knowing what a gentle and kind person Jeffrey was, it was a bit uncalled for. Brandon just could not help himself.

"That is wonderful," Brandon said sincerely. "We better get to Sylvie as quickly as possible then, so we can help him out. Jeffrey's smart, but he can't heal."

"Jeffrey is a shape shifter, right?" Hugo asked.

"Yes," Brandon replied. "He has the ability to morph his body to take the form of any object, animal, or human. He is the master of disguise. I hope he's alright. He's been alone for weeks."

"We can talk for the next day or we could get to your girlfriends faster," Roscoe said gesturing to the directions that Kayla drew out. "Which sounds better to you?"

"I get the message, Dad," Brandon said. "Let's go!"

The trio crawled through the vents following Kayla's directions in order to find the ladies' headquarters. Roscoe was in the front, Brandon was in the middle, and Hugo was behind him. They weren't really fast, so it took them several hours to find their destination.

However eventually upon the evening, the trio came upon an opening. Roscoe looked down, saw a green carpeted floor, and heard familiar voices talking. These voices were the voices of Kayla, Albina, and to Hugo's delight, Sylvie, who were just eating dinner. Hugo could feel his heart beat faster with excitement.

Roscoe called out, "Hey, ladies! Do you mind if we come in?"

The three girls jumped. Kayla flew upwards inside the vent. She smiled widely.

"Uncle Roscoe!" Kayla screamed.

"What?" Albina said. Meanwhile, Atlas, P-Body, and Alpha just looked at each other in bewilderment.

Kayla moved out of the vent.

"Who's there?" Alpha asked.

"It's Roscoe and Brandon," Kayla said. "They've found us."

Then looking at Sylvie, she said, "They brought someone else with them, too."

Sylvie, knowing who she meant, straightened up and got off the couch. Atlas watched her movements.

Roscoe jumped down from the vent, Brandon jumped down from the vent, and then finally, Hugo jumped down from the vent.

Sylvie upon seeing Hugo had tears in her eyes. She walked past Brandon and Roscoe and straight up to him. Sylvie stared into his eyes for a second and then threw her arms around him.

"Grace à Dieu," Sylvie said allowing her head to rest on his shoulder. "You're alive. I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too, my love," Hugo said gently wrapping his left arm around her waist and stroking her neck and back with the other gloved hand of his right arm.

"Is that your boyfriend?" Alpha asked innocently.

"Yes," Sylvie replied smiling. "This is my boyfriend."

P-Body and Alpha watched on in fascination, but Atlas watched on in what can only be described as pure, unadulterated jealousy. How could she love that creature? He was scary-looking. He had glowing red eyes, weird-looking hair, and dark skin. He looked more like a monster while she looked like an angel. It didn't make sense! Atlas felt something dark towards this strange man. He did not like him, and he wanted him gone immediately.

Hugo and Sylvie turned to share a kiss forgetting the danger of it for the moment. Hugo's lips burned Sylvie's face almost immediately. In spite of the pain, she lingered for a while. There was steam rising from his lips as they burned hers.

Atlas jumped up in a panic. He grabbed the back of Sylvie and pulled her backwards causing her to fall over onto the floor.

"Atlas," Sylvie yelled sitting up.

Atlas bent down and held her up looking at the burn marks on her lips.

"What was that for?" Sylvie asked.

Atlas touched his hand to the burn marks on her face, and then he turned and glared at Hugo.

"It's alright," Sylvie said standing up. "He didn't mean to burn me. He can't help it."

Hugo walked over and looked at the burns.

"I'm sorry, Sylvie," he said.

"It's alright," Sylvie replied. "I guess we both got a little carried away."

"I'll say," Kayla said sarcastically. "There are innocent eyes in this room."

"You aren't really innocent," Albina said.

"I was talking about Alpha," Kayla replied.

Meanwhile, Alpha was standing on the floor trying to comprehend it all.

"Kissing is dangerous," he concluded.

"In any case," Roscoe said. "Let me heal that for you."

Roscoe healed Sylvie, and the burns went away immediately. Sylvie was healed, but Atlas wasn't forgiving. He still continued to give Hugo a hate-filled glare.

Meanwhile, Hugo walked over towards his step-sister and gave her a hug as well.

"I missed you too, Albina," said Hugo.

"Did you now?" Albina replied somewhat surprised by his affection towards her.

"Yes, I did."

"I suppose that there is a first for everything."

"Albina," Hugo said grabbing her hands in his. "I know that I have not been a very godly man towards you. I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry, and I will try to do better."

"We are opposites," Albina said thoughtfully. "We are ice and fire. That is understandable."

"That is no excuse. Albina, will you forgive me? I meant what I said before all this happened you know. I want to treat you like the smart woman you are instead of like an obnoxious little kid. If I don't, you have my permission to freeze me. What do you say?"

"I say yes under one condition," Albina said with dignity. "Please stop trying to cook your girlfriend."

Hugo said squeezing her in a hug, "I'll try."

"I love you too, my brother," Albina said smiling as she hugged him back.

"Now, that that's over," Brandon said. "Do you ladies have anything to eat? I'm starving."

"Of course," Sylvie said walking over to the machine.

She quickly got food together for the guys. The men were starving. They ate their sandwiches in no time flat. The ladies continued to eat, too. Atlas continued staring at Hugo very jealously. He was disgusting. He looked like a pig the way he ate. How could Sylvie fall for someone so vile? However in spite of himself, Atlas felt something else for him: respect. He legitimately seemed like a man who went out of his way to treat people well. He was also so tender with Sylvie. He treated her like a queen, better than Atlas ever could. He hated Hugo so much, but he also felt an undeniable amount of respect for him. How could this be? Atlas was truly becoming more human. He wanted to pray. He did not understand the emotions that were mulling about in his mind. He felt so confused.

As Atlas continued to stare, the group talked and ate for a while. The ladies explained to the men anything that needed explaining such as the origin of the robots and all that Sylvie had found when searching through the records of Aperture. They were happy to be with each other and were glad to see each other again.

After a while, Sylvie spoke up.

"Would it be alright if I talked with Hugo somewhere alone?" Sylvie asked.

"Not unless you mind talking in the bathroom," Kayla said.

"That's alright," Hugo said.

The two of them walked into the bathroom and locked the door so that they could have some time alone.

Everybody else sat on the chairs and the couch in the middle of the room and continued to talk. Atlas sneaked away when they weren't look and crawled to the door to spy on Hugo and Sylvie. He had made it to the door when he felt himself be lifted into the air.

"Oh, no you don't," Kayla said moving him telekinetically back where they were. "They said that they wanted alone time, and they are getting alone time."

Kayla dropped him back where they were, and the group continued talking. Atlas sat next to P-Body on the outskirts. P-Body smacked him on the side of his head, crossed his arms, and shook his own head disapprovingly. Atlas glared back at him, looked at the door, and looked at him pleadingly. He was saying that he wanted him to help him get back to the door. P-Body shook his head to say no. Atlas continued to stare at him pleadingly. P-Body finally cracked and nodded his head in agreement with a sigh. Atlas hugged him. P-Body got up and walked towards the group.

"What's up, P-Body?" Brandon asked.

P-Body got out his cards and played an improvised version of pick a card with them while Atlas snuck back up to the door to listen to what Sylvie and Hugo were saying.

From the outside of the bathroom, Atlas was overhearing their conversation. Unfortunately, he couldn't understand a word because they were speaking French. Translated, their conversation went as follows.

"C'est incroyable les choses qu'a passé ici," Hugo said. "Cette place était et est enfer encore."

(The things that happened here are unbelievable. This place was and still is hell.)

« Alors, tu comprends pourquoi j'ai besoin d'aller, » Sylvie said. « C'est seulement moi qui en peut dire à tout le monde. Dieu me veut amener la justice aux ces morts. Pour faire ça, le monde doit être en paix premier. Je peux faire quelque chose pour aider, alors je ferai quelque chose. »

(So, you understand why I need to go. I'm the only one who can tell everyone about it. God wants me to bring justice to these dead people. In order to do that, the world needs to be in peace. I can do something in order to help, so I will do something.)

« Tu sais que c'est dangereux. Nos parents sont morts à cause d'eux, » Hugo said.

(You know that it's dangerous. Our parents are dead because of them {the aliens}.)

"Je sais," Sylvie responded sadly. « Mais il vaut la risque. Est-ce que tu penses de ça? Hugo, tu et moi pouvons faire les choses impossibles pour les autres. Nous pouvons aider le monde avec nos pouvoirs. Dieu nous en donne pour faire quelque chose bonne. Voilà une chance à faire quelque chose bonne ! Nous ne pouvons pas faire rien. Je n'ai pas peur de mourir. Nous mourions éventuellement. C'est bien si je vais en ciel essayent faire quelque chose bonne comme ça au moins. C'est un ordre de Dieu. Je ne peux pas dire non. »

(I know. But it's worth the risk. What do you think about it? Hugo, you and me are able to do things that are impossible to others. We can help the world with our powers. God gave them to us in order to do something good. Here is a chance to do something good! We cannot just do nothing. I am not afraid of dying. We will all die eventually. It is good if I go to heaven trying to do something good at least. It's an order from God. I can't say no.)

« Tu as raison, » Hugo said thoughtfully. "Si c'est un ordre de Dieu, c'est nécessaire à faire quelque chose. Mais puis-je faire quelque chose aussi ? »

(You're right. If it's an order from God, it's necessary to do something. But may I do something, too?)

"Quoi?" Sylvie replied.

(What?)

« Je vais avec toi, » Hugo said. «Pour beaucoup de temps, j'ai voulu à faire quelque chose. Cependant, j'étais en conflit parce-que je ne voulais pas te quitter, mais maintenant c'est comme Dieu a donné un signe. Je peux aller maintenant avec toi. Nous avons la même mission à battre ensemble. Puis-je aller avec toi ? »

(I am going with you. For a long time, I have wanted to do something. However, I was conflicted because I did not want to leave you but now it's like God have given me a sign. I can go with you now. We have the same mission to fight together. May I go with you?)

« Bien sûr, » Sylvie said. « Je ne veux pas te quitter non plus. »

(Of course. I don't want to leave you either.)

« Je veux te demander quelque chose autre, » Hugo said.

(I want to ask you something else.)

"Oui," Sylvie asked.

(yes)

« Tu veux me marier? » Hugo asked. « Je ne suis pas un homme parfait. Je ne peux pas te toucher sans te blesser. Je ne pourrai jamais te donner des enfants. Cependant, je promets que je t'aimerai toujours. »

(Will you marry me? I am not a perfect man. I can't touch you without hurting you. I will never be able to give you any children. However, I promise that I will always love you.)

«Oui,» Sylvie said.

(Yes)

Just then, Atlas heard a noise behind him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kayla yelled at Atlas.

Atlas was telekinetically pulled into the air and dropped into the middle of the group.

Then turning to P-Body, she said, "You were distracting us to help him. Weren't you?"

P-Body put his cards away and started to walk away, but Kayla picked him up telekinetically, too.

"You two are troublemakers," she said.

Kayla sat them both down on the floor with Atlas on the left and P-Body on the right.

"Hey, Albina," Kayla said. "Could you help me out here?"

"Yes," Albina replied.

Albina froze their legs to the floor while Kayla held them down. The two robots squealed in disapproval.

"I'm sorry," Kayla said. "But you two won't leave Sylvie and Hugo alone. I'll get you out once they come out. Okay?"

P-Body crossed his arms and looked at Atlas. Then he smacked him on the side of the head, and gave him a look that said, "Why did you drag me into this?"

Just then, Alpha walked up to them.

"You two are bad robots," Alpha said.

Atlas looked at him and pushed him over on his side onto the floor.

"Hey," Alpha yelled. Then turning to Kayla, he yelled, "Help me! He's being mean."

"You were mean first," Kayla said not even looking at him. "It's mean to kick someone when they're down."

Atlas and P-Body surprised by her response, just laughed in the background.

"I'm sorry," Alpha said in the cutest way possible.

Kayla picked him up telekinetically and got him back on his feet.

"Thank you," he said.

Then the group went back to talking.

"Guys, I have to say that I'm sorry about all of this," Brandon said. "It's my fault we all got in trouble in the first place. Chelsea wanted to leave before we even entered the building. I shouldn't have made her come here. She has had to endure so much horror, and it's entirely my fault."

"Don't worry about it, son," Roscoe said. "It is going to be alright."

"You didn't mean to do it, Brandon," Albina said. "You need to forgive yourself. Besides, what is feeling bad about it going to do?"

"Yeah," Kayla said. "This situation isn't all bad. Some good things have resulted from it. At least, we'll finally defeat GLaDOS."

Then looking at Alpha and lifting him telekinetically into the air, she said, "We also have made some new friends."

Alpha laughed and said, "Hooray!"

The flash of recognition finally came across Atlas's and P-Body's eyes. They had been too preoccupied to figure it out before, but it finally occurred to both of them. They recognized Brandon's face. They looked at each other in shame. That guy Brandon was the one they had carried done to the medical lab a month before. They had watched as GLaDOS conducted medical examinations on him and Chelsea. They had watched Brandon test, too. They felt really awkward. They stared at the ground in embarrassment.

"What can you do?" Alpha asked Brandon as he spun around in the air.

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked.

"Sylvie reads the minds of machines, Kayla can make things fly, Albina freezes things and flies, the dark man burns, and the hairy man heals. What can you do?"

"Oh," Brandon said finally understanding what the turret meant. He got up from his seat. Brandon walked away from the sofa and stood in front of the wall.

"Watch this," Brandon said to Alpha.

He ran straight forward and right before he was about to hit the wall, he phased through it just in time. Alpha, Atlas, and P-Body were all stunned. Brandon phased right back into the room.

"So, what do you think?" Brandon asked.

"Oh my, God!" Alpha said as Kayla sat him down on the floor. "You're all amazing. Why aren't other humans like you?"

"What?" Brandon asked.

"You are not how my programming describes humans to be," Alpha said. "You are all different. Why are you different?"

Roscoe replied for Brandon, "We don't exactly know how. We were just born this way. We think that we might have an idea though. We think it was caused by the radiation from all the wars that Earth has had with the Combines."

"What are Combines?" Alpha asked.

"They are a race of aliens that came to earth when a company called Black Mesa accidentally opened a portal from their world into ours. They invaded in order to develop their technology in some way I can't remember. Gordon Freeman and a bunch of other fighters defeated them before, but they returned about twenty years ago. They were kept under control at first, but then they started winning and took over in all of the major cities."

"They killed my parents who fought against them," Kayla said sadly. "They probably killed Sylvie's parents, too."

"The Combines also killed my mother and Hugo's father when we were fleeing through Siberia to reach a rebel stronghold in Canada," Albina said. "The Combines killed everyone in our group except me and Hugo. I was able to kill the aliens with my ice but was too late to save my parents. That used to haunt me so much. Once we reached the stronghold by ourselves, we were taken south to Michigan where Pastor Roberts and all these other people lived in a hotel so we would be safe. Now that I'm older, I want to go back and fight. Hugo wants to go with me, too."

Atlas heard this and looked towards the bathroom. Hugo and Sylvie had suffered more than he realized. Atlas did not understand the idea of loss. He was a robot. The only person who had mattered to him was P-Body, but P-Body was rebuilt whenever he was destroyed. He could not imagine what it must have been like to have someone you love be killed and never rebuilt. It was through this revelation that he painfully began to acknowledge that Hugo would be good for Sylvie. They understood each other's pain, they cared about each other, and they had the same goals in life. He was big, strong, and caring. Atlas was only a robot. He knew that he could not care for Sylvie like Hugo could as badly as he wanted to. These facts were painful to acknowledge, but he had to accept them as the truth.

Atlas's thoughts were interrupted by Kayla who said, "I'm going with you guys. I'm going to fight them, too."

"Kayla," Albina said. "We'll talk to your grandfather about this, but I still think that you are too young."

"I may be young," Kayla said pleadingly, "but I am powerful. You know that. You all need me. You know you do."

"You are still a child," Albina said.

"I am not a child," Kayla yelled suddenly in frustration. "I am completely capable of doing anything that you can! I am not weak. I am not a handicap. I have done well here. Haven't I? How are the Combines that different? I can kill them as easily as I kill the other robots. Stop looking down on me just because I am twelve years old!"

"You have more issues than that," Albina said.

"Shut up!" Kayla yelled thinking that Albina was talking about her handicap.

Kayla was so mad that she started lifting Albina in the air telekinetically. She slammed her against the wall. Kayla flew closer to her, and they looked at each other tensely in the eyes. Albina could not move, but managed to keep her cool nonetheless. Kayla was tired of her looking down on her like a baby all the time.

"Stop it, Kayla," Roscoe said fearing that she would tear her apart. "Just calm down."

Kayla turned away and dropped Albina on the floor.

"You are so immature," Albina said angrily as she started to get up.

Kayla flew forward as her eyes started to well up with tears. She flew to the window and opened it telekinetically. They were not far from the roof, so she flew to the top to be alone.

Roscoe ran to the window and tried calling her back, but Kayla was not listening. Albina got up and walked towards the back. The ice that she froze over the door had a reflective surface that she used as a mirror. Albina got a hair tie out of her pocket and started to braid her hair. She fidgeted with her hair whenever she was upset about something. Roscoe walked back over to her.

"Why did you have to say that to her, Albina?" Roscoe asked. "You know that she's right. She is probably the most powerful out of all of us. She could rip the aliens apart in a second. She has also survived here."

Albina continued to mess with her hair in the mirror and did not even turn around to look at Roscoe.

"I do not deny that she would be a big help," Albina said.

"Then what problem do you have with her helping out," Brandon asked.

Albina let her hair fall down and then said,"Emotionally, she is not ready for something like this. She is smart and has helped us out a lot through mapping the vents and stuff like that, but she has also endangered her life and other lives because of her recklessness."

"What do you mean?" Roscoe asked.

"When she gets upset, she does stupid things. When the robots found her and the others, she ran away in the vents while the others faced GLaDOS. When Sylvie stepped in to protect the robots from GLaDOS, she saved them from the neurotoxin but had to practically be dragged out of the room when it was time to escape because she wanted to finish off GLaDOS. Kayla also went on a rampage and destroyed several rooms afterwards. She almost went insane."

"Any one of us could have stooped to that level, Albina. She is not a perfect human. Neither are you. We all make mistakes."

"But will she listen to other people correct her mistakes when she makes them or will she stubbornly go on her own way and get herself and others killed? That's what I'm worried about, Roscoe. She is so immature that she refuses to listen to other people. She refuses to stop her course once she makes up her mind. That mindset could get her killed, and I don't want to watch her die like I watched my mother."

"So, what you're saying is that if she was more humble and more responsible then you would feel better about her coming with you?"

"Yes, but that is just the problem. She will never let herself stoop to listening to anyone other than herself. If she can't make that choice of maturity, she will never be of use to anybody except as cannon fodder. I will not let her die."

Albina's eyes started welling up with tears. Alpha walked over to her and watched this new phenomenon. He had never seen tears fall from human eyes before. Alpha knew what tears were, but he had never seen them in action.

"Losing my mother was the most painful experience of my life. I was unable to protect her. I know what danger is. I want to know that she will handle herself well when the trouble comes. I don't want to watch her get herself killed," Albina said.

"I'll talk to her," Roscoe said resting his left hand on Albina's cold shoulder. "She looks up to me. She might listen to me."

However just then, Hugo and Sylvie came out of the bathroom holding hands and smiling and looking at each other. Sylvie's eyes rested on Atlas and P-Body who were still frozen to the floor.

"What have you guys been doing to my robots?" Sylvie asked gesturing in their direction.

"They were eavesdropping," Brandon said standing up.

"Well, get them out," Sylvie replied.

Brandon walked over to the robots and phased both of them through the ice. Atlas and P-Body were happy to be unfrozen. They walked over to the open window and pointed out of it. The sky was growing dark and the moon and stars were appearing. Sylvie read their minds and instantly understood.

"So, Kayla got into a fight with you guys?" Sylvie asked. "Then flew out the window?"

"Yes," Albina replied.

"She's most likely on the roof," Roscoe replied. "Whenever she got upset at home, that was where she would go."

Roscoe knew Kayla well. He had helped George Roberts raise her from the time she was a baby. She was like his niece in Christ. He knew that he had to talk to her. Roscoe knew that perhaps he was the only one who could get through to her besides Chelsea when she wouldn't listen to any of her other friends.

"I'm going to go talk to Kayla," Roscoe said looking out the window and up at the roof that was the next floor up.

"Before you go," Hugo said. "There is something that we want to tell you, Roscoe."

Roscoe turned around and looked at them to wait for their reply.

"We are getting married," Hugo said wrapping his arm around Sylvie.

Roscoe and the others felt unbelievably happy for the both of them. P-Body gave a thumbs up in approval while Alpha was jumping up and down. Atlas however was not happy. He felt an unbelievable amount of sorrow take over all of his senses. He could hardly stand under it. He turned away from the crowd, walked away to the bathroom, and curled up into a ball in the corner. If he had tear ducts, he would be crying. P-Body saw him walk away and turned to follow him. He had no idea of what to do, but he just sat next to him and attempted to comfort him. Atlas's heart was broken.

"That is not all," Sylvie said. "We're also going to fight the Combines together. I will make the world a safe place, and I will tell everyone about this horrible place."

Albina stood up crossing her arms and smiled quietly.

"Congratulations, my sister," Albina said walking towards her. She then did something unexpected. Albina took off her necklace that held her mother's wedding ring and held it in her hand.

"This wedding ring was given to my mother by his father, but now I want you to have it," Albina said handing it to her.

"Albina, I can't. It belonged to your mother. That is all you have of her. I can't take that away from you," Sylvie said.

"This is not all I have of her. I also have a crucifix of hers, pictures, and everything that was in her suitcase when she died. I will put on the crucifix when we go home. Please Sylvie, you are like my big sister, and I don't think I will ever be married anyway. Please take it. You deserve it."

Sylvie was crying tears of joy. Hugo took off his gloves and picked it up from Albina's left hand. She was the only person that he could touch without burning because her icy cold skin counteracted the effects of his hot skin.

"Thank you, sister," Hugo said.

He then very carefully put the necklace around Sylvie's neck. Sylvie was beaming with joy. Now, her wedding ring matched his.

"Now, it's official, love," Hugo said and then gently kissed the top of her bandana. He hated that he could not touch her skin without burning it and that he would never be able to give her children, but he was happy to know that she would love him for the rest of his life.

"Congratulations," Brandon said.

They would have had a loud party but they knew that they had to be quiet in this place. So, they celebrated quietly. Roscoe turned and walked towards the window once again. He looked up at the dark night sky, and then he turned around.

"Hey, could you help me with something, Albina?" Roscoe asked.

"Yes," she replied. "What is it?"

"I need to get on the roof to talk to Kayla."

"You need a lift?"

"Yes, but you don't have to stay on the roof with me. I just need you to get me up there. Okay?"

Albina agreed and flew up in the air while the other three talked about prospects for the future. She grabbed Roscoe and pulled him out the window. Since he was heavier than she was, she had a hard time holding him up, but she managed. In the light of the crescent moon, she could see the roof. Albina flew upwards and pulled Roscoe with him. She then dropped him on the roof out of fatigue and flew back down. Roscoe thanked her as she flew back inside, and then he turned to face Kayla. But, she was not there.


	12. Chapter 12

Kayla was not there. Roscoe looked around in a panic afraid that in her upset state she had done something really stupid. However, he was relieved to find her backpack lying on the roof underneath the light of the full moon. She had left with it, and he knew that she would not go anywhere without it. If Kayla had not gone after GLADOS, there was only one other place that she could be. Roscoe looked up and waited.  
When Kayla was little, she and her grandfather would have contests to see who could fly the highest. It was through these experiences that Kayla found her special place. Whenever she was upset or just needed to think, she would always fly into the sky. She would fly as high as she could go before she was unable to breathe and just stay up there for as long as she could. Kayla loved being in the sky. In the sky, she was closer to God and she could think clearly. In the sky, the entire world looked so tiny and insignificant. In the sky, everything was peaceful. In the sky, there were no troubles for all the troubles of the world were on the ground. In the sky, they did not exist for at least a while.  
After fighting with Albina, Kayla flew up to her special paradise. She had left her backpack on the ground so that nothing in it would get dropped and broken. Kayla pulled on her black hoodie for warmth and went on her way. Anyone who could have seen her would have seen a black silhouetted ghost departing for heaven. Because of her telekinesis, she could fly as high as she wanted. She flew up into the air with tears streaming down her face until she could see the entire facility. She then turned away and flew higher and higher. There were no clouds on that clear night so the stars could all be seen clearly. The cold, crisp autumn wind blew against her hot face. Kayla flew towards all the stars. She wanted to fly until she could reach outer space so that she could leave the difficult world behind. Kayla looked down as she flew higher and higher. The ground and all of its contents began to look tinier and tinier as if they were only insects in the higher order of things. When the horrid facility looked like a pebble, she knew that she was high enough. She knew that she was safe.  
Kayla allowed the tears to stream down her face as she faced the light of the moon and stars. She wondered if anything would feel her tears fall from so high up. Her world was truly divine. It was in that special place that was away from the world that one could get a glimpse of the divine. In the silence and in the beauty of the night sky, one can feel the presence of God.  
Kayla's emotions were so heavy inside her heart. It almost weighed her down when she tried to fly. Her emotions used to be so easily cast off, but now that she was getting older, they were not so easily cast off anymore. Kayla had to learn to fly with them. She asked for the strength to know how. Kayla could not do anything other than cry, and she could not find anything to make the situation more positive like she normally could. She let God know how frustrated she was. She wanted to help, but everyone thought that she was too young and too inexperienced to do anything. Kayla was mad because of her emotions. She wished that she did not have to feel the way that she did. Kayla wished that she could turn her emotions off and just move on, but she could not. All she could do in that divine place was tell God how she was feeling so that her sorrow-filled heart would be able to feel just a bit lighter. After praying, her heart still felt a bit heavy, but it felt a little lighter than before. She tried to look at the stars and forget her troubles for a while. Kayla remembered how Chelsea would fly up there to look at the stars with her and even attempt to talk to her. That made her smile to remember that. Chelsea would have stood up for her. She would have told them. Maybe she would go fight the Combines, too. Kayla did not want to be left out. Kayla stared at the stars in the skies while her thoughts slowly faded away to silence. She must have stayed up there for over an hour. When Kayla was beginning to feel tired, she started to fly back down. It was disappointing for the distance between her and the facility to get smaller and to watch the facility grow larger once again. It was a reminder that the problem she was facing was very real. As she got closer to the roof, she began to make out a man in the moonlight. However, it was so dark that she couldn't see his face clearly, so she flew down faster. In less than a minute, Kayla touched down.  
"Who goes there?" Kayla asked.  
"It's me," she heard Roscoe's voice say.  
"Oh," she said in relief. "Hi, Uncle Roscoe. Did you climb up here just to see me?"  
"No, I didn't climb. Albina gave me a lift."  
Roscoe sat down on top of a vent on the roof.  
Kayla never being one to beat around the bush asked, "What do you want?"  
"I just wanted to tell you that Hugo and Sylvie are engaged."  
"That's great," Kayla said with all the sincere enthusiasm she could muster.  
Roscoe, being able to read her sadness in her tone, added, "I also came because I thought you could use somebody to talk to. I might be able to help you know. I could talk to your grandfather for you."  
"Would you do that for me really?" Kayla said growing more excited in her tone and flying closer to him.  
"I want to Kayla. I really do. Believe me. I'm just not sure that it's the right thing for you to do."  
"Oh, crap!" Kayla said rolling her eyes and turning away. "Not again. Not more of the same you can't go because you're too young and blah blah blah nonsense!"  
She turned towards him and flew closer to his face.  
"You know how sick and tired I am of hearing that? I've heard it all week. I'm tired of hearing it. I just want someone for once to support one of my decisions and not treat it like a childish whim."  
Roscoe looked at her face and almost recoiled in sad memory. He had been through a situation like this one before. He had talked to Kayla's father about going to fight the Combines. She had the same determination in her eyes that her father Eli had. It was uncanny. Her brown eyes gleamed with determination just like his did. Her father felt called to fight, and Roscoe could do nothing to change his mind either. He did not blame God for the death of his friend. Roscoe just wished that he could have helped him. He knew that if God had placed it on her heart to go that she would go and she would be able to help with her power, but he didn't want her to die like her father did. Roscoe had to make sure she was ready.  
"How do you know that it is not a childish whim, Kayla?" Roscoe asked. "What you want to do is dangerous! It's not a game where you cannot die. This is not a TV show where everything will be guaranteed to be alright in the end either. If something bad happens to you, it really happens to you. You might not come back. You might die. It is not going to be all fun and games. It will be difficult and frightening."  
"I know that! This mission we're on now is not fun and games. I have done alright here. How is GLADOS different from the Combines?"  
Roscoe looked down at the ground. What he was about to tell Kayla would not be easy, but it had to be done. Roscoe finally looked up.  
"It's because of how you've done here that I'm concerned," he said.  
"What are you talking about?" Kayla asked incredulously. "I've done really well here. I have beat up GLADOS and mapped the vents. Those are good things."  
"Yes, but what about the times you messed up, Kayla? Like the time that you flew into the vent by yourself and abandoned the group? Or the time that Sylvie had to scream at you to come out of the room where GLADOS was? Or when you almost went insane afterwards?"  
Kayla was overcome with silence and stared at the ground as he continued to talk.  
"Kayla, you are powerful, and you are smart. We all know that, but you have no self-control. When you get upset, you act on your emotions and make mistakes putting yourself and other people in danger. You are still too immature to control yourself when the situation calls for it. Fighting GLADOS has been hard, but fighting the Combines will be much worse. These aliens are very dangerous. You would be put in very emotionally crazy situations that could end your life. You would need to be in control during those times. That is something that is difficult for an adult to do let alone a child. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Kayla, but after seeing your performance on a mission such as this one, I think it would be too dangerous for you to go fight the Combines. You are simply just not mature enough for something like that. The others are. That is why we don't want you to go."  
Kayla looked at the ground for about a few minutes in silence. Her eyes were filling with tears as she thought over all that he said, but unexpectedly, she looked up and gave a sad smile.  
"As painful as it is to admit, I think you're right, Roscoe," she said with tears rolling down her face. "I have put myself and people's lives in danger. I don't have any self-control, and I'm sorry. I think for the safety of everyone else that it would be better if I stayed behind. I don't want to hurt anyone with my stupidity. I wish that I was older so that I could be mature enough to fight with you guys. I'm sorry for causing so much trouble."  
Kayla picked up her stuff and turned to fly back to the room when Roscoe spoke again. He was smiling.  
"Maturity doesn't come with age, Kayla," he said. Kayla turned and looked at him immediately. "Maturity is a choice that you make. It doesn't mean that you don't make mistakes. It means that you take responsibility for your actions, are humble enough to listen to the words of others, and strive to do better. Kayla, you just showed me that you can be mature."  
"You don't mean…" Kayla said starting to get excited.  
"I think you're ready to fight the Combines," Roscoe said smiling with a heavy heart. "I will talk to your grandfather."  
Kayla flew straight up to him, and he wrapped his arms around her. He could not stop Eli from dying. However, he would do something to help his daughter.  
"I will talk to him under two conditions," Roscoe said.  
Kayla pulled away from him, and asked, "What?"  
"I need you to try harder to have more self-control while you're here so that I can feel more confident about my decision," Roscoe said.  
"Sir, yes, sir," Kayla said emphatically with a smile.  
"I'm also going to be coming with you. No one can die if I'm there to heal them. I will protect you."  
Kayla's smile disappeared.  
"Roscoe," she said. "You don't need to do that."  
"Yes, I do," he replied. "When your father left the hotel to go fight, I could not protect him. I could not leave my son alone without a father when he was so young. However now that my son is a full-grown man, I can fight. I will make up for my failure to protect Eli by protecting his daughter."  
"Roscoe, I don't blame you for the death of my parents. I understand that you had to be there for your son, so he wouldn't go without a father, too."  
"I know that, but I still want to come with you. I'm going to protect you and the others so that no one else has to die."  
Kayla smiled confidently.  
"Alrighty then, Roscoe," she said. "We will do it."  
Kayla flew up in the air to celebrate briefly. However, she was very tired, so she flew back down and started yawning. Pretty soon, Roscoe was yawning, too.  
"Are you ready to go to bed?" Roscoe asked her.  
"Yes," Kayla said. "Would you like for me to carry you down?"  
"If you don't mind it," Roscoe said.  
"Oh, no, it's fine."  
Kayla picked up Roscoe telekinetically, and she flew up to the window with him. The window was still hanging open with Alpha standing watching for trouble.  
By the time they got down there, everyone else had already fallen asleep. Albina had given up one of her cushions for Brandon. She was lying in front of the frozen door on a bed of snow with a cushion to support her head. Brandon was lying on the floor with his head on top of the extra cushion. He was so tired that he didn't care about the hardness of the floor. Atlas and P-Body were sitting in their hard chairs sleeping. The sweetest dreamers were Hugo and Sylvie. They were both sleeping on top of each other on the couch. Hugo was sleeping on the bottom with his jacket off. Sylvie was lying on top of her folded arms on top of him wearing her jacket and his jacket on top of her. He had both his arms wrapped around her body in a warm embrace.  
That was the sight that Kayla and Roscoe saw when they entered the room. Everyone was asleep except for Alpha. Kayla telekinetically handed Roscoe a cushion to sleep on top of. He smiled at her and walked over to a corner to fall asleep.  
"Good night," Roscoe whispered to Kayla.  
"Good night," Kayla whispered back.  
"Good night!" Alpha said loudly.  
"Shhh…." Kayla and Roscoe both whispered at once.  
"Sorry," Alpha replied.  
Kayla and Roscoe both fell asleep.


	13. Chapter 13

All throughout Aperture, everyone was asleep except for the robots and the lone cockroach that was hiding around Chelsea's bed. Back in that hallway, Jeffrey had been wandering around in cockroach form. He had lived like that for about a month. He had been dodging the views of everyone by hiding in plain sight sometimes as a crow, sometimes as a fly, sometimes as a dragonfly, and sometimes as a cockroach. He had made a sort of nest in an old office in Aperture Science where there were no cameras to spy on him. It was only there that he could be a human once more. However whenever he needed to go out, Jeffrey had to transform himself into an animal. He lived like an animal on the outside. As a bird or a dragonfly, he would eat other insects. As a cockroach, he would eat anything that resembled food. It was difficult for him to live like that. He tried to find the others, but the facility was so large that it was almost impossible especially while Zaki was out of commission. He should have worried that living like an animal for so long was turning him into an animal permanently. However, he was not. He was never afraid that one day he wouldn't know how to be a human anymore. He trusted God and oddly enough felt no fear although he was lonely. He read his Bible to comfort himself in his loneliness as much to keep his faith alive as to feel human and prayed constantly to be able to find anyone. Nevertheless, he never worried that he would never be able to find anyone or that God was not looking out for him. He had peace in his heart that was unnatural. This peace allowed him to be calm in the face of things that would upset his friends. It baffled his friends, but for him, it was normal and part of what made Jeffrey himself. It made him sad to be alone, but he was not worried.

However that day that he found Chelsea, he felt his heart come alive with joy. It made him so happy. He was scared about Chelsea's condition, but he was glad that he could be there with her and care for another human once again. He was happy to not be alone anymore.

The cockroach watched after her for the next week from the moment the robots took her into the incinerator room.

That night, Jeffrey had no idea what was happening, and he was really scared for her. At first Jeffrey hid under her surgical table, but he wanted to know what was happening. So under the cover of darkness, Jeffrey flew out to see what he could see. He settled on the ceiling and looked upside down at the scene. The room was dark except for the furnace in the left corner of the room. The furnace filled the room with a sinister red glow that made Jeffrey feel like he was at the entrance to hell. He scanned the room to see what all the robots were doing. Three of them were just standing around Chelsea while one was doing something around the furnace. Jeffrey crawled on the ceiling until he was right above the robot's head. He was sticking something into the furnace at the end of a large iron stick. Jeffrey wanted to get a closer look. He turned around to make sure that the other three robots weren't looking and then he flew down and rested himself on the doctor robot's shoulder. The doctor robot didn't even notice that he was there.

"Is it ready yet?" GLaDOS asked suddenly over the PA system causing Jeffrey to jump.

"Almost," the doctor robot with the hot iron replied.

"Hurry it up please," she replied as Jeffrey turned around to see her staring through the camera. "I want you to administer this treatment so that we could continue to treat her physical ailments."

"If you are concerned with treating her physically," the doctor robot replied. "This is really unnecessary for her. We don't have to do this. I do not understand your reasoning behind it. If anything, this could make her worse."

"Oh, but it is necessary for science. I have to take care of this young woman's struggling mind. You have not dealt with enough humans to know it, but they need psychological treatment more than they need physical treatment. Up until now, I have been treating her body, but I have not been doing enough to treat her mind. From now on if I am to gain any traction with her, I will have to administer more…psychological treatments. What we are doing here is the first step."

Jeffrey peeked into the furnace to see what was a branding iron. The branding iron had the circular Aperture Science logo on the end of it glowing brightly in the fire.

"It looks like it's ready," the doctor robot said.

"Good," GLaDOS replied happily. "Let's get this treatment started."

Jeffrey was frozen with fear. He wanted to help Chelsea, but he knew that she was sick and whatever they would be doing was going to save her life. If he were to drag her away now, then she could die from her illness. All he could do was be there for her. He would wait and watch over her until the others came or until she was healed. He didn't want to risk killing her. He wished that he could get into contact with Roscoe or Zaki. The doctor robot took the branding iron. Jeffrey flew up from his perch on his shoulder and flew onto the ceiling. The three other robots spread out Chelsea's arm, and Jeffrey closed his eyes as they branded her with the company's logo on her left shoulder. The sound of the hot iron brand on her skin and the smell of the burnt flesh horrified him. He was glad that she was evidently too unconscious to feel anything.

"Is it done?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yes," one of the doctor robots replied.

"Let me see it," GLaDOS demanded.

The doctor robots lifted up the top half of her body so that the GLaDOS could see it from the video camera on the wall. The logo on her skin was dark red and swollen and definitely visible.

"It looks wonderful," GLaDOS said with a dark amount of pleasure. "It will definitely help her out. I think this mark is just what her long-suffering young mind needs. In the short-term, it will cause her some distress, but in the long term, she might come to appreciate it. It is permanent after all. It will be a permanent reminder for her."

"The patient will suffer from the burn for a while…" the doctor robot said.

"Wrap up the burn and have ice put on it," GLaDOS replied nonchalantly. "That should make the swelling go down. The burn should heal eventually just leaving the scar. Just keep an eye on it and make sure that it doesn't get infected. She will be fine. Any pain she does feel will only serve the purpose of the treatment. Get her settled and get her back to treatment now."

The robots cleaned the scar, wrapped it with gauze, and then put some ice on top of it. Jeffrey then flew back under her gurney and rested there. The robots wheeled her out of the room and brought her to the place that was her treatment area.

The treatment area was simply a hospital room with a large sun lamp attached to the ceiling. The robots laid Chelsea's body on top of a hospital bed, connected all the necessary IVs, brushed out her hair, pulled an oxygen mask over her face, turned on the sun lamp, and then left the room. The cockroach flew up above her bed and rested on the ceiling. He stared at Chelsea's left arm in disbelief. How could anyone be this cruel towards anyone? It was horrifying. Furthermore, what could GLaDOS mean by treating her psychologically? Was she simply trying to torture Chelsea into compliance?

The doctor robots came in to check on Chelsea throughout that week as Jeffrey watched on waiting for her recovery or for the arrival of Roscoe so that he could help her escape. For the first twenty four hours, they left the lights off, but after coming in and taking some notes, they turned on the sunlamp again and left it on for the rest of the week. The robots changed out her IVs, checked on her stitches, checked on her new scar, cleaned her body, mouth, and her hair (Jeffrey always looked away during that part), changed out her adult diaper (he looked away during that part too), and left her alone for the most part under the light of that large sun lamp.

During that time, all Jeffrey did was watch over Chelsea. He had the ability to sleep in the form of whatever he had taken the shape of, so when he was tired, he slept as a cockroach on top of the sunlamp. When he needed to eat, he became a dragonfly and ate whatever insects were crawling around. It was amazing how many there were in what was supposed to be a hospital area. When he was thirsty, he drank water that was dripping from the sink in the room.

As Jeffrey watched over her, he noticed that there was something bizarre going on with Chelsea. It wasn't that her skin was not getting burned. Her skin had been immune to sunburns for her whole life. It was that the treatment was working. Despite how weird this treatment was, it was evidently having some effect. Her health was improving. She looked like she was gaining a little bit of weight from the food they were feeding her intravenously. They were beginning to remove the bandages and the stitches from her body leaving the little scars behind. Finally, she was beginning to breathe without wheezing and soon they said, her pneumonia would be gone and the oxygen mask would be removed.

Jeffrey knew that he had to act. After six days, he still wasn't getting any reply from Zaki so Jeffrey decided that it would be up to him to rescue Chelsea from her plight. He actually felt kind of excited thinking about it. As a child and even now, he enjoyed playing the Mario and Legend of Zelda videogames. Now though, it was like he would get to be a hero and rescue a damsel in distress in real life. Jeffrey started to make his plans for their escape immediately.

In order to do so, he had to leave Chelsea temporarily. Crawling as a cockroach on the ceiling along the ceiling, he made his way into the hallway. He walked above the head of the robots that were standing in front of the open door. From there, he turned right and made his way back towards his hiding place. Jeffrey had been living in this hallway for so long that he knew his way around the place. As Jeffrey crawled along, he made note of his surroundings. There were several video surveillance cameras on the walls. These would have to be disabled. After crawling quickly for about five minutes, he found something interesting. There were two diverging paths in the hallway. He looked to his left and saw the side hallway that led to a dead end and was the place where the garbage chute was. The robots always turned right whenever they left the room to talk to GLaDOS so they must have to walk past it in order to get back to where GLaDOS was in her main chamber. The way this place was laid out there were no other hallways up to this point that led away from this one. A plan was slowly forming in Jeffrey's mind. Past the side hallway on the left, the hallway went forward a little and then veered right. The hallway continued on until it reached the janitor's closet at the end and turned left again. This closet contained the vent that Jeffrey used to get back to the office where his headquarters was located. Jeffrey smiled inside as his plan grew more and more complete. He figured out what he would do in order to save his princess. He sat there for a while as his plan came into his mind. Finally though, his plan was formed to his satisfaction, and he set about carrying it out.

The first thing that Jeffrey had to do was take out the cameras in these hallways. There was one right before he reached this part of the hallway. There was one in the dead end garbage chute part of the hallway. There was one in the corner as the hallway veered right. Then finally, there was one on the other end of the hallway on the left side of the janitor closet. They were four in total, and they were all watching the same area. Jeffrey knew that he had to get rid of them, so he did. First, he crawled as a cockroach until he got behind one of the cameras. Then he shapeshifted into a crow, and he chewed the wires out of the back of the camera so that it broke. He carried out the same act with the second and third cameras. For the fourth camera, he flew as a crow so that any other camera that he was sure was further down the hallway would pick up a crow pulling out wires and nothing else.

With that done, Jeffrey was done for the day. He could not carry out the next part of his plan until Chelsea was completely well, so he decided to go back and wait. Jeffrey flew back as a crow until he was above the janitor's closet, then he shapeshifted back into a cockroach and continued flying until he reached where Chelsea was. To his relief, she was still there resting tranquilly as ever. He took out the cameras in that hallway and re-entered the room.

"Don't worry, my lady," he thought to himself. "Your hero is here to save you."

On that day, Jeffrey was finally able to get into contact with Zaki. It felt good to finally hear the voice of another human once again. He had been going weeks upon weeks of hearing nothing but the voice of God and the voice of the robots. He wasn't even angry about the delay though. He was just grateful. Jeffrey told Zaki all about his plan to save Chelsea. Zaki listened with an interested and cautiously optimistic ear.

"What do you think of my plan, Zaki?" Jeffrey asked telepathically.

"I am cautiously optimistic that you could pull it off," Zaki replied. "If you get an opportunity before we can get to her, you can take it. Only do it though if it is your only option left."

Zaki liked Jeffrey. He respected his intelligence, but as often is the case with many socially awkward people, his aptitude was in question. Zaki was not sure that he could pull it off. However, he was willing to take a chance on him especially if it would help his daughter. Zaki knew from Jeffrey all that GLaDOS had done to her. She was getting more viciously possessive of Chelsea. They needed to get her out soon. Zaki read Jeffrey's mind and saw his unrelenting confidence. He didn't want to discourage him.

"Thank you for watching over her. Please keep up the good work. We will stay in contact. I'm really sorry that you have been alone for all this time with no one to talk to. I should have made an effort to find you," Zaki said.

"It's alright," Jeffrey said. "God was with me all along, so I was never really alone. Now, I am definitely not alone because Chelsea is with me. I will protect her with my life if necessary."

"I'm glad she has you as a friend," Zaki said. "Over and out."

Jeffrey sat upside down at his perch on the ceiling for the next day. He was watching and waiting for an opportunity to save his princess. Finally however that next night, he found his chance.

The doctor robots were carrying out their routine examinations while Chelsea lay there unconscious when one of them gave wonderful news.

"Her pneumonia is completely gone," one of them said. "Her surgical wounds are healed, too. She is ready to continue in the experiment."

"That is great news," one of the other doctor robots said. "She is still a bit underweight though."

"A healthy weight is not required to be a test subject here," another one replied.

"No, but it is required for a healthy pregnancy," the second robot replied.

"You have a point," the first robot replied. "One of us needs to see GLaDOS and ask her what she thinks, because it's her call."

"I'll go," the fourth robot replied. "I'll talk to GLaDOS and tell you what she says."

Jeffrey knew that this was his chance. Chelsea was now well enough to go with him without any danger to her health. He tried to contact Zaki, but he failed. Nevertheless, Jeffrey was going to go through with his plan. He was excited yet focused. He was on a mission. He was like Link. That night, he would act to save his Zelda.

There are certain times when events line up in a way that is perfect. That night, Chelsea was well and Jeffrey was going to save her. That evening, Brandon, Roscoe, and Hugo had found their way back to Sylvie, Albina, and Kayla. That night, Chell, Zaki, and Roberts found their way to the underground vaults. The perfect timing for all these events was no fortunate accident. Certain occurrences are the providence of God.

The robot who volunteered turned right to leave the room. Jeffrey followed him as a dragonfly. He flew quickly ahead of him until he reached the hallway where the garbage chute was. He then turned into the hallway and waited. As he heard the footsteps of the robot approaching, he made his move.

Jeffrey shapeshifted into Chelsea. He copied everything about her physical appearance down to where her tattoo was on her right shoulder. As the robot walked by the hall and turned right, Jeffrey whistled. The robot turned around and stared at him confused.

"How did you get here?" the robot asked.

Jeffrey stared at him in silence with a smile on his face. The doctor robot pulled out a syringe.

"Oh, well. It looks like I will have to drag you back. Don't try anything."

The doctor robot walked towards him with a syringe. However just before he got to him, Jeffrey shapeshifted into a dragonfly and flew upwards above the doctor robot. The robot just stared at him in a dumbfounded amazement.

"What's going on?" the robot asked.

Jeffrey landed on the robot's head and then quickly shapeshifted into a hippopotamus crushing him into pieces. For the first time in a long time, Jeffrey stood up and shapeshifted back into a human. He had olive skin with green eyes, brown curly hair, and a thin moustache and goatee. He was wearing jeans held up by a belt, black tennis shoes, a red long-sleeved collared shirt, and a brown sweater over it. He was also carrying a backpack with supplies.

Jeffrey ran to the edge of the hall and looked around to make sure that no one was coming. Then he ran back into the hall, and he started picking up the robot's pieces. He ran over to the trash chute and dropped the pieces down the shaft. Jeffrey quickly got all the pieces of the robot off the floor until they were all gone, and it looked like nothing had ever happened.

Jeffrey gave a self-satisfied yet reluctant smile. He wished that the robots were not evil so that he didn't have to kill them. Jeffrey would have liked to learn more about them and their design. He loved working with electronics. However, it was necessary because they had no other choice. Jeffrey sadly looked away and carried on.

Anyways, Jeffrey set about the second phase of his plan. He shapeshifted into the robot that he had just destroyed. Jeffrey got every detail correct including the voice. With that accomplished, he turned right and headed back to the room where Chelsea and the other robots were awaiting him.

Jeffrey entered the room where the robots were waiting for him.

"What did she say?" one of the doctor robots asked.

"She said that she wanted to see the patient right away," Jeffrey said in the best robotic voice possible. "So, I told her that I would bring the patient to her."

Jeffrey was scared that the robots would see his bluff or see that something was wrong, but they didn't.

"Okay," one of the other robots said.

Then turning to the others, he said, "Go get the gurney and we will prepare her to move."

The other three robots walked down the hall to get the gurney. Jeffrey was scared. There was one detail that he had overlooked. As a doctor robot, he was expected to know exactly what he was doing when he prepared a patient to see the boss. However, Jeffrey, who did not have much medical knowledge besides what he had seen or picked up from Roscoe, was in for a world of trouble. He could not ask questions or actively appear to be confused. That could arouse their suspicions and blow the whole thing. All he could do was pray and just pretend that he knew what he was doing.

Jeffrey watched the other doctor robot and did what he did. The doctor robot removed an IV, so Jeffrey removed the other IV as carefully as he could. The doctor robot rubbed antibiotics on the spot where he had removed the IV, so Jeffrey did the same. The doctor robot wrapped her right wrist with gauze so Jeffrey did the same on the left. Suddenly Jeffrey thought of something that he could ask without being seen as suspicious.

"When will the sedatives wear off?" Jeffrey asked as a robot.

"We haven't injected any drugs in a while. It is actually time for us to be applying more to keep her asleep. Why do you ask? Does the boss want her awake?" the doctor robot asked.

"Yes," Jeffrey replied. "She does. She wanted to talk to her."

"Oh, tell her that the drugs should wear off in about 15 minutes. She'll be drowsy like before, but hopefully, she won't try to escape again."

"Great!"

The other robots returned with the gurney. The five of them lifted Chelsea and placed her on the gurney. The other four robots backed away while Jeffrey turned to push Chelsea out and leave.

"Are you sure that you're alright with going alone?" one of the robots asked Jeffrey. "With all the freaks running around here, it might be dangerous."

"I'll be fine," Jeffrey said. "GLaDOS has put special turrets in the hallways that are programmed to shoot any unauthorized personnel on her command."

"Alright then, you're good to go," the doctor robot said.

"Thank you," Jeffrey replied.

With that, he pushed the gurney with Chelsea out into the hallway and turned right. He was so happy. He couldn't believe that his plan had worked. He was winning the game. He had saved his princess. However, it was too soon to celebrate. Now, they had to get to his hiding place. Jeffrey pushed the gurney into the special side hallway where the garbage chute was. He had to wake Chelsea up. He didn't want to have to drag her across the floor.

Jeffrey still in the form of a robot grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her with his cold metallic hands. Chelsea was beginning to stir.

"Chelsea, wake up," Jeffrey said in his robot voice still. "Please wake up. We have to go."

He tried to wake her up, but she wouldn't wake up fast enough. So, Jeffrey came up with another idea. He caused his hand to give off the smell of ammonia and put it under Chelsea's nose. Chelsea sat up immediately wide awake.

"Thank, God, Chelsea! You're alright!" Jeffrey exclaimed.

Chelsea looked at him and looked around.

"Ok, we have to…" Jeffrey started to say.

However before he could finish, Chelsea put a force field up behind him with her left hand and used her right hand to create a disk. She was getting ready to cut him into pieces and run away because she thought that he was one of them.

Jeffrey quickly started to hum a melody to a song that he knew Chelsea would recognize. It was "the Song of Saria" from "the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time." It was a videogame that he and Chelsea both played when they were kids. It was her favorite song from that game along with "Song of Storms." Chelsea hummed the song to herself, and then, she dropped both the force field behind Jeffrey and the disc in her right hand. There were tears in her eyes.

"Jeffrey?" she asked smiling sincerely for the first time in what felt like forever.

Jeffrey shapeshifted into himself again right in front of her. She could not contain her joy at being in the presence of her friend or simply just another human for the first time in a month. She was not alone anymore.

"Hey," Jeffrey said with a smile feeling the same thing that she was but much more subdued. "How are you doing?"

Chelsea in her ecstasy pulled her legs over the edge of the gurney and hopped down. However, she was not aware that she was still very drugged and so she fell onto her knees in weakness. Jeffrey ran up to her, got on his knees, and put his left arm around her shoulders.

"Chelsea, are you feeling alright?" Jeffrey asked.

Chelsea looked at him and slapped him on the face. Jeffrey pulled away from her, put his left hand on his face, and looked at her.

"You idiot! What were you thinking being in the form of a robot? I was about to kill you. I could have. Why would you do something that stupid?" Chelsea said.

"I'm sorry," Jeffrey said. "I took that form to get you away from the other robots. I tricked them. I guess I forgot to change back. That is no reason to slap me though."

Chelsea looked at him and said, "You tricked the other robots to save me?"

"Yes, I killed one of them, and I pretended to be him. It felt weird like I was playing a videogame or something. It was all a part of my plan, and it worked. I saved you. You're safe now."

Chelsea smiled and wrapped her arms around him.

"You slapped me and now you are hugging me," Jeffrey said. "I am confused about how to react right now."

"Just hug me back," Chelsea said. "I'm grateful to you for saving my life. Thank you!"

"This must be how Link feels every time he saves Zelda," Jeffrey said hugging her back.

Chelsea laughed and said, "Holy crap, Jeff! You are such a geek."

"How am I a geek? What is a geek anyway?"

"You are absurd, and I feel too loopy to argue with you."

"No, I am curious."

Jeffrey then suddenly pushed her arms off of him and looked her in the eye.

"Chelsea, we have to get out of here. If we stay here, they could find us," Jeffrey said.

"Okay," Chelsea said looking at him. "Where do we go?"

"We just have to go to that closet over there," Jeffrey said as he gestured to the closet down the hall. "I'll show you what to do from there. However first, there is something that we must do."

"What?" she asked.

"We need to destroy this gurney and throw it into the garbage chute there so that no one will notice that it's lying around with no one in it. Can you help? I know that you still feel bad but…"

Chelsea smiled, stood up, wobbled a little, and Jeffrey got under her left arm to support her.

"Say no more, Jeffrey," Chelsea said. "I have wanted to destroy this damn thing for the past month."

Chelsea pushed him off and stood up without Jeffrey's help. Then she created two discs with her hands, and she happily got to work. She thanked God for this opportunity to release her pent up rage. She used her discs to cut the gurney in half and slice and dice it still into smaller and smaller pieces. Jeffrey was almost frightened by how much rage she was releasing. It made her feel good to get all her feelings out about this place, but it also made her feel sick to exert herself that much. Upon cutting the gurney into pieces, she fell back on her bottom and started breathing hard. She felt tired, but she was content.

"Chelsea," Jeffrey asked crouching down next to her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Chelsea said. "You have no idea how good that felt. I guess that I'm just sick from the drugs still. I'll get over it."

"You have been out for a week."

"That's how long I've been asleep this time? How do you know?"

"I've been watching you this past week. I was waiting until you were well enough to run away. But anyways, I'm sorry for making you work so hard when you're sick. I didn't know you felt that bad. Just sit down. I'll get it."

"I can still help, Jeffrey…" Chelsea said starting to get up.

"I insist. Sit down," Jeffrey said pressing her shoulders down. "I don't want you to stand up anymore until you feel better. It has been taking a lot out of you."

"Fine," Chelsea said sitting on the ground and resting her head on top of her arms which were folded on top of her knees.

Jeffrey quickly got to work picking up all the pieces of the gurney and throwing it down the garbage chute. Chelsea crawled over on her hands and knees over to the garbage shoot. She started picking up pieces of the gurney and dropping them in whenever Jeffrey opened the shoot.

"I said I could do it," Jeffrey said. "You don't need to help."

"I know," Chelsea said. "But I want to."

"I have an idea," Jeffrey said. "Create a disc and put it on the ground. I'll shapeshift into a broom and get all the pieces onto the disc and then we can throw away all the pieces at once."

"That sounds bitchin'," Chelsea said. "Let's do it."

Jeffrey laughed at her sudden remark as Chelsea laid her disc on the floor. He then shapeshifted into a broom and swept all the pieces onto her disc. Then he shapeshifted back into himself.

"Can you lift it?" Jeffrey asked concerned.

"Can you lift me?" Chelsea asked.

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a gorilla, Chelsea converted her disc into a ball, and he lifted her into the air giving her the support she needed to dump her force field's contents into the garbage shoot.

"There, we're all done," Chelsea said sitting on the ground exhausted.

"Thank you," Jeffrey said as he turned back to himself.

"No, thank you. Let's get moving," Chelsea said trying to stand up.

"Don't," Jeffrey said pushing her back down. "I will carry you. Just let me shapeshift into something good."

"Alright," Chelsea said with a weary smile. She was trying to be strong, but it was evident that the drugs were going to take a while to wear off.

Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a gorilla, and Chelsea got up and got on his back. She lay down on top of it and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Are you comfy?" Jeffrey asked.

Without thinking, Chelsea replied, "It feels okay."

"It only feels okay?" Jeffrey responded concerned. "I can make it feel better."

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a horse right under Chelsea.

"How does this feel?" he asked.

"It feels fine," Chelsea replied beginning to get annoyed at him and at herself for saying anything.

"You don't mean that. I can make it feel better."

"Jeffrey, we are just going across the hall. It doesn't matter."

"You're sick, and I just want you to feel as comfortable as possible."

"We are literally 15 feet away from the closet."

"How about this?" Jeffrey said as he shapeshifted into a bear.

"It feels great," Chelsea replied.

"I can tell by your tone that you don't mean that."

"I will walk there myself."

"You can't do that if you can't reach the floor," Jeffrey said laughing and shapeshifting into a Pegasus and flying off the ground.

"Why must you be so annoying?" Chelsea said closing her eyes.

"How am I being annoying?"

"You know what, Jeffrey? I don't have the strength to argue with you. Do what you will."

"Okay," Jeffrey said as he continued to shapeshift into animals that might be more comfortable for Chelsea to lie on top of.

Meanwhile, GLaDOS was back in her chamber recording scientific data on Chelsea, her new favorite test subject. Despite how difficult she was, GLaDOS really enjoyed working with her. She really was an unexpected blessing. Her mutations were absolutely fascinating. However in spite of her supposed scientific objectivity that was supposed to keep her from getting attached to subjects, GLaDOS found that she was becoming more and more attached to this subject. She did not admit it to herself, but she was. One reason for this was Chelsea's intelligence. She was not as intelligent as GLaDOS herself was. There was no way that she could be, but she still had an interesting way of looking at things. GLaDOS was fascinated by the way that she thought deeply about things. She cynically thought that this was an abnormal trait among humans. Most of the humans that GLaDOS had encountered were too busy fighting her to show that they could think about anything, so when she finally encountered a human like Chelsea who never seemed to stop thinking about deep things, it was unusual. GLaDOS was fascinated by her ideas and how hard she fought to defend them in spite of her condition. It was a certain kind of respect that was growing into a genuine yet perverted love. Perhaps deep inside, GLaDOS was longing for a companion. None of the robots were able to think as she did she thought. She had raised three crows, but they had escaped long ago and were most likely dead. Since they left, GLaDOS had felt reluctantly lonely. There existed a human longing for companionship that GLaDOS was never able to get rid of, and although she refused to admit that it existed, it was there. She wanted to make Chelsea hers for as long as she lived.

Chelsea fascinated GLaDOS in another way, too. Of all her test subjects, she was the one she had most trouble breaking. That presented an interesting challenge to her. As difficult as Rattman and Chell were, GLaDOS knew that she still managed to get to them. Rattman went insane and started talking to his companion cube. Chell cut off her ability to communicate to others and stopped talking. Chelsea had showed some weakness, but she had not changed herself in the least. Chelsea still acted like the crazy yet deep teenager with an odd amount of religious conviction who came into Aperture. She had not changed herself at all. GLaDOS found a twisted delight in breaking the human spirit. She liked pushing people to break, and she wanted to see Chelsea break for the sake of science. Yet so far, the kid had not given her the satisfaction. Chelsea was hers now, but she didn't act like it. GLaDOS wanted to do something about that.

Besides that, GLaDOS needed to break Chelsea so that she could control her for the rest of her life. GLaDOS may have liked her spirit as much as she liked Chell's, but the needs of science outweighed her personal preferences. Nothing she did affected her, and GLaDOS could not work not having that control over a human. She needed that control. If work was going to continue, having Chelsea's mind intact was not necessary; making her compliant was. She needed Chelsea to crack psychologically and give up her violent resistance. GLaDOS could not kill her for fighting, so that was the only route for her to take. For science, the limits of mind could be tested. For GLaDOS, she could win back the control that she wanted and the companion that she refused to admit that she wanted. The brand on Chelsea's shoulder was step one in this process. Now, GLaDOS needed to make sure the body was well enough for her to move on to phase two.

With that in mind, GLaDOS used the PA to talk to the doctor robots in the lab where Chelsea had been before. She thankfully did not use the camera to see what they were doing at that moment because she was still too busy looking at the results of Chelsea's treatment.

"Hello, doctors!" GLaDOS said while looking over the results some more. "Would you be so kind as to bring the patient to me? I would like to have a look at her."

The four doctor robots stopped what they were doing and looked at each other in fear. They were all thinking the same thing. They had thought that Chelsea had been taken by their colleague to see GLaDOS. That obviously had not happened. Now, she was missing, and even worse if GLaDOS found out, she would kill them.

"We have to find her now," one of the doctor robots said.

"Did E56 betray us?" another one said.

"I don't know if he did or he was hypnotized by the blonde one, but either way, she is going to kill us," another doctor robot replied. "Let's move out."

The four robots walked in the direction that they remembered E56 walking in. They turned right down the hallway hoping to find something.

Meanwhile, Chelsea and Jeffrey were still having their debate.

"How about this?" Jeffrey said shapeshifting into a centaur.

"It feels fine, Jeffrey," Chelsea said still lying on her stomach on top of his back.

"Don't like this one either, huh? Alright, how about this one?"

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a hippogriff. The feathers on his back were really soft. Chelsea enjoyed the way that it felt.

"Leave it like this, please! It feels amazing!" Chelsea said.

"I told you that I could find something comfortable if you would be patient," Jeffrey said.

"You were right. Now, could we move?"

"Yes," replied Jeffrey as he began walking down the hallway as a hippogriff. He walked like a horse. The rocking helped Chelsea feel more relaxed and get closer to sleep. It also helped that Jeffrey spread his wings backwards over her like a blanket.

"You know I'm like a videogame princess," Chelsea said. "I feel so helpless right now."

"Like Peach," Jeffrey replied.

"I don't want to be Peach. She never does anything."

"You could be Zelda."

"I wouldn't mind being Zelda except for the fact that she looks nothing like me. Come to think of it, are there any Asian or half-Asian videogame princesses?"

Jeffrey froze and turned his head because he heard something while Chelsea was talking.

"Videogames are racist…" Chelsea continued to say.

"Chelsea, I know that you're happy to talk to another human being, but we need to be quiet right now," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea was confused and slightly concerned, but she consented to it.

"Okay," she said drowsily and started to drift off to sleep.

Jeffrey walked more quickly towards the door. He reached the door.

"Chelsea, open the door," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea got up on her elbows, turned the knob, and opened the closet door.

However, it was too late. The robots rounded the corner and saw the pair of them.

"Oh, my God!" the main leader robot said looking at hippogriff Jeffrey. "What the…"

Jeffrey's eyes widened in fear as he stared down the robots. However without saying a word, Chelsea sat up, quickly created two discs, and sliced all of the doctor robots in half before Jeffrey even had time to do anything.

Jeffrey turned around and looked at her in amazement.

"I told you," she said. "If I'm going to be the damsel in distress, I at least want to be one who does crap."

Jeffrey was shocked, slightly scared, and embarrassed all at once. He lay down on the ground, and Chelsea drowsily got off and leaned against the wall of the closet. She was very drowsy from the drugs and really needed to sleep off their effects, but she fought hard to stay conscious.

"Chelsea, stay in here. I'll clean up the robots," Jeffrey said as he shapeshifted back into a human. "Good work!"

Jeffrey turned and ran down the hall in order to pick up the dead robots and throw them down the garbage chute.

As Chelsea rested against the wall of the closet, the gravity of her situation began to occur to her. GLaDOS had not made any remarks right away, so she probably did not know she was gone. However the robots knew of her escape and that was reason enough to be concerned. GLaDOS would find out soon enough and use every power at her disposal in order to find her. Chelsea was afraid. She did not want to return to that monster. She knew that God would protect her, but she did not want to go back to her. She did not want to be her test subject anymore. Furthermore, she did not want to be alone again. Chelsea started to quake with fear.

Jeffrey finished his work, and he came back to the closet where he saw Chelsea shake with fear.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he got down to her level and shut the closet door.

"Jeffrey, we can't stall anymore," Chelsea said a little bit hysterically. "We can't be caught. I don't want to go back to her. I can't. I'm so scared. I almost killed myself the last time I saw her. I just don't want to go back. I don't want to go back."

Chelsea started to cry. It was evident that she had been through a lot, and it was starting to get the best of her. Chelsea did not want to feel this way. She wanted to be strong just like her mother.

Jeffrey held her right hand and said, "I'm sorry. I should not have goofed around for as long as I did. We are only alive now because of you. You don't have to worry though. You're safe now. We will get through this together. God will help us, too. He has protected us for this long, and he will protect us for even longer."

Chelsea smiled at him drowsily and stopped crying. The pair then shared a loving hug.

"Thank you, man," Chelsea said. "You know you're not as awkward as you think you are."

Jeffrey snickered out loud at her odd comment.

Suddenly, the both of them heard GLaDOS's voice in the hallway.

"Hello?" she asked. "Are you coming with the patient? I'm waiting."

Chelsea held onto Jeffrey and shook with fear.

"You still feel drugged?" Jeffrey asked.

"Unfortunately, I feel as high as a prostitute," Chelsea replied. "I can't move a lot."

"That is alright," Jeffrey said. "I can take care of this."

"Where's your secret hideout?"

"I'll get us there, but to right now, I need you to do one more thing for me."

"What might that be?"

"I need you to cut open that vent there."

Chelsea got out a disc and sliced the grating off of the vent. Jeffrey gestured for Chelsea to go in. She crawled on her hands and knees very feebly. Jeffrey crawled in after her. He then pulled the grating back over the vent and morphed his right hand into a blue fire torch while using his left hand as a face shield. Chelsea rested on her back against the left side of the vent with her eyes closed because she saw what Jeffrey was doing. Her knees were pressed against her chest, her left arm was around her knee, and her right arm was on top of her knees stroking her necklace with her fingers. Jeffrey finished his work so that anyone who came in the closet would not notice that the grating had been tampered with in any way. GLaDOS would discover that Chelsea was missing, but she would have a terrible time figuring out where she had gone. Jeffrey finished his work and then shapeshifted into a dragonfly so he could buzz past Chelsea in the vent. Once past her, he turned back into a human and turned towards Chelsea.

"Follow me," Jeffrey said.

"Jeff, I feel too weak," Chelsea said. "I can't go on."

Jeffrey was thoughtful. He shapeshifted into an anaconda and said, "Hold on to me. I'll drag you through."

"Thank you," Chelsea said.

Chelsea lay down on top of him and wrapped her arms around him. Jeffrey wrapped the back part of his tail gently around her waist so that she would not be crushed, and he started to crawl along the vent. Chelsea shut her eyes and started to rest as she was dragged along.

"We don't have far to go," Jeffrey said. "Just be patient."

"Alright," Chelsea said.

Jeffrey slithered down through the vents until he reached another broken grating about fifteen minutes later. This grating led to a space between the walls of Aperture where there were no video cameras. It was just a dark stone interior with pipes running along the walls. Ratmann's messages could still be seen in some places. Jeffrey fixed the grating back on the covering the way he did before, and then, he shapeshifted into a hippogriff once more and walked forward with Chelsea lying on top of his back. Chelsea rested her head on top of her folded arms and looked around. Her eyes rested on some bandages around her left shoulder.

"That's weird," Chelsea thought tiredly. "There weren't any bandages there before. What have they done this time?"

Jeffrey turned his head around and saw her staring at her bandaged left shoulder. His heart sank. Chelsea would be upset to see the brand. She was not ready to look at it yet. Jeffrey spread his folded wings over her body so that they covered her back. Chelsea turned her head forward and shut her eyes again. Jeffrey finally came upon an open white door that went into the black corridors where some old testing chambers were. He pushed the door shut with his back left foot and continued walking. Chelsea looked around his head. The roof and wall of the old testing chamber had collapsed on itself. The artificial lights just barely shined. Jeffrey walked into the white testing chamber and looked up. There was an old observation room with a huge hole in the glass. Jeffrey unfurled his wings off of Chelsea's body and looked up. He flapped them and flew upwards and straight into the glass hole in the observation room. The walls were plain white with blue carpet. Desk chairs were sitting against the wall with old beige chair cushions piled on top of them. The room was not very big. At the back, there was a bathroom on the right and a door leading to the other office rooms. Jeffrey walked in while Chelsea lay on his back. Jeffrey got on his stomach so that Chelsea could get off. She had so many questions, but she was too tired to ask any of them. They would have to wait until later. The drugs were getting the better of her. She drowsily got off of him and staggered towards the wall.

Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a human and asked, "Would you like a place to sleep?"

"That would be amazing," Chelsea said.

Jeffrey picked up the two cushions off of the chair and laid them on the ground. He then got his backpack off his back and pulled out a blanket. He handed her the blanket and also the backpack.

"Why are you giving me your backpack?" Chelsea asked confused.

"You can use it as a pillow," Jeffrey said.

"I can't, Jeff. I won't do it. You need to something to sleep on. I'm already taking your bed."

"It's fine. I'll shapeshift into a dog and sleep like that."

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a border collie, and he curled up on the ground.

"See? I am very comfortable," Jeffrey said. "I don't need a backpack at all."

Chelsea saw that it was a battle that she was not going to win with him. She turned around, pulled the cushions closer together, laid the backpack on top of the top cushion, laid down on top of the cushions, and pulled the blanket over her body.

"Jeffrey, come over here," Chelsea said.

Jeffrey got up and walked over to her as a dog. Chelsea sat up, held his dog body in her arms, and gave him a hug and a kiss on top of his head.

"Thank you so much, my friend," Chelsea said with tears in her eyes. "I am so grateful to you. You have saved my life. I love you."

"Any time, Chelsea," Jeffrey said. "You are very welcome."

Jeffrey was flattered and surprised by all the attention he was getting, but he did not know how to react to human emotion very well so he just sat there while Chelsea squeezed him. She finally let him go and pet him on the head like a dog.

"Good night, my friend," Chelsea said yawning and lay down.

Jeffrey walked to the foot of Chelsea's makeshift bed and curled up on the ground in front of it.

"Hey, Chelsea," Jeffrey asked.

"Yes," Chelsea said as she shut her eyes.

"This doesn't mean we're dating again. Does it?"

"No, Jeffrey. No, it doesn't."


	14. Chapter 14

Albina had the same nightmare that she had had every night that week. It was a traumatic memory from her childhood. She had been accused of being a demon before.

Since her mother was a diplomat, she would hold meetings in her home with other official leaders since her house was very large. During that time, she could not take care of Albina during the day, so she usually hired tutors to teach her until she was done in the late afternoon.

Her tutor at the time was not a good person. She was a woman who went by the name of Linka. This woman came from the village nearby. She had silver hair that she kept in a bun and cold gray eyes. She always wore an old purple dress that was covered in coats whenever she went outside and old boots. She was religious, judgmental, and highly superstitious, a very bad combination. She claimed to be a true Christian but had no love in her heart especially for those whom she considered abominable. Albina was four years old, but she was very well-behaved and smart. Linka taught her as well as she could but was deeply suspicious of her. Albina with her white skin, blue lips, and white hair looked like the ghost of someone who had frozen to death. It was not normal. Her appearance scared Linka. However, Albina was too naïve to notice anything strange about her behavior. Linka would be strict with her and stare at her a lot, but Albina did not think there was anything weird about it. Linka thought that at any moment the monster Albina was could spring up. She had heard legends of the elemental spirits. She thought that Albina looked like she could be one of them, but she had no proof.

One day, Linka returned after work to pick up her forgotten house keys. Albina's mother, Anastasia, had come and taken her child, and they immediately went to play outside in the snow. That was when Linka saw it happen. Anastasia was standing in the snow in her boots and her black winter outfit with her thick black winter coat. Her long brown hair and her two pairs of dangling silver earrings were flapping in the wind. She was up to her boots in snow. Albina ran towards her wearing no shoes and wearing her white long-sleeved shirt and rolled up jeans with her short white hair. She was not cold at all. Anastasia bent down and grabbed her in her arms and lifted her up spinning her in the air. Unexpectedly, Anastasia let her go and Albina went flying up into the air. Linka continued to watch in shock from behind a tree. Anastasia watched Albina fly for a minute and then land. She then watched with joy as Albina created ice sculptures with her hands and played on top of it. Linka was horrified. She thought that the child was a monster. She thought that Albina was some kind of demon that Anastasia might have summoned in order to fight the aliens. She had thought that Anastasia was a good Christian woman who had adopted an abandoned child and was working hard to help the world. She didn't think that she would sink so low as to actually summon a demon. Linka decided that she would do something about it, and she did. She took a video with her phone and walked away. This was where Albina's nightmare memory began.

Linka came to tutor Albina the next morning like she normally did. Albina was her young self again, and she walked in eager and impatient for the day to end so that she could play with Mommy outside once again. After today, her mother would get two weeks of vacation for Christmas so the two could be together without anyone to interrupt them. They were all speaking Russian at the time. Albina's mother spoke to her in English as well as Russian so she would learn both languages. However for the sake of simplicity, the dialogue has been translated into English. Anyway, Albina walked in and Linka looked down upon her with a devious smile.

"Good morning, Albina," Linka said.

"Good morning, Miss Linka," Albina replied not suspecting anything. "What are we doing today?"

"We are actually going somewhere special."

"Like a field trip?"

"You might say that."

"Cool! Where are we going?"

"You will see."

With that, Linka pulled on all of her winter overcoat and tried to help Albina do the same, but she stepped away.

"I don't need a coat. I don't get cold," she said.

"No, no, you don't," Linka said remembering the day before.

Albina was standing there wearing a black sweater and a pink skirt with little cowgirl boots. According to Linka, her innocent attire and face only belied her evil. She was either a demon or she was possessed by one. Either way, Linka was about to solve this problem once and for all. Albina in the dream knew this, but for some reason, she still allowed Linka to take her hand and lead her out of the house.

Albina and Linka walked until they reached her car. Albina looked around to see the mansion and the Russian landscape just as she remembered it. The mansion was a large three story estate that had been in the Romanov family for generations. It was as big and grand as a family mansion could be. It fit in perfectly with the grand Russian landscape. She loved the thick woods that surrounded her home with their vastness and their mysterious nature. Albina would spend hours playing outside in it and next to it with her mother. The sky was grey and filled with snow clouds as it was mid-December. It was starting to snow which made Albina very happy. Albina had let go of Linka's hand and was just staring at the world around her in awe.

Linka coughed and got Albina's attention. She had opened the side door of her small blue Cadillac, and she was motioning for Albina to get in. Albina knew that it was the perfect opportunity for her to run away. She could have just flown away whenever she wanted to. She just did not know what was about to happen. Albina wanted to run away, and she would have. However in the dream, she just walked forward as if she was being controlled by someone else. Albina crawled into the back seat of Linka's car, and she buckled her in.

"Are we going to the village?" Albina asked.

"Yes, we are going to a special place in the village," Linka said.

"Where?"

"Just be patient, my dear. You will know soon."

Linka walked into the driver's seat of her car, and she turned on the ignition and started driving. They pulled out of the estate's driveway and drove down the road. Albina watched as the car drove past the trees of the forest that were growing thick on either side of the road. Ten minutes later, the car pulled off onto a dirt driveway that led to the village's small Russian Orthodox Church. Linka got out of the car, opened the door for Albina, took her hand, and led her inside. She recognized this place. She and her mother came here every Sunday.

"Why are we at church?" Albina asked.

"We need to see Elder Vladimir right away," said Linka.

"Why?"

"You ask too many questions, child."

They entered the sanctuary where Elder Vladimir was. He was Linka's husband, and he was every bit as crazy and hypocritical as she was. She had showed him the video of the "demon," and he was anxious to deal with the phenomenon himself. He was dressed in his elderly robes. Meanwhile, Albina was admiring the stained glass windows and the painted icons. They were her favorite part of going there at the time.

"Is this the child in question?" Elder Vladimir asked.

"Yes," Linka said. "Are the others here?"

"Yes, they are."

"Is Father Romanov gone?"

"Yes, he has gone to visit the home of a sick saint."

"Excellent, now we can carry on without him interfering in mistake. He is fooled by her."

Albina turned her head and paid a bit of attention once her uncle's name was mentioned.

"What are we doing?" Albina asked innocently.

"I know you are special, little one," Linka said. "I just wanted to introduce you to some friends and tell them how special you are."

Linka and Vladimir led Albina into a meeting room in the church where a small group of elderly men and women with devilish and suspicious eyes were gathered. Albina knew where this was going in the dream, but her dream self did nothing. They all stared at her like she was some kind of freak. Their eyes were filled with fear mixed with hatred. Albina did not understand why they stared at her this way, but she tried to be as polite as her mother had taught her to be. She just stood there and smiled politely.

"Albina," Linka said firmly. "I know that you have ice powers. I want you to show them to my friends."

"I can't," Albina said politely.

"Why not?" Linka asked.

Looking back, Albina should have replied that she had no idea what they were talking about. However, she heard herself say innocently, "Mother says that I am not allowed to do it inside because it will make a mess."

The men and women started whispering to each other excitedly.

"Don't worry, child," Linka said. "We don't mind. Just do it please."

"Okay," Albina replied.

She created ice from her hands to go on top of the table in the middle of the room. It was a thin sheet of ice. She then flew up into the air in order to get on top of the table and skate on it. Albina was laughing and smiling, but the people around her stared at her with shocked and frightened faces. She stopped skating and stared at them. She was beginning to get very scared.

"What's the matter?" Albina asked timidly. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Linka, you were right," Elder Vladimir said in amazement. "She is one of them."

"What are you talking about?" Albina said looking at him.

Another man shouted out, "She is a spirit of the elements in human form."

Another man said, "She is a demon. We have to get rid of her."

"What?" Albina said.

"I knew that woman was desperate for help," Elder Vladimir said. "Who knew that she was desperate enough to call for the help of the devil? We have to carry out the ritual before it curses us with its evil."

"I'm not evil," Albina said meekly. "I swear."

"Silence, succubus," Elder Vladimir shouted at her pulling out his crucifix. "You have given yourself away. No human can do what you can. We know your secret. Now, kneel before the power of the cross. We drive you out in the name of Christ!"

Albina not knowing what to do sat down, cried, and trembled.

Subsequently, everyone else started yelling the same thing. In one voice, their hypocritical voices yelled. They accused this child of God of being a demon because of her gifts and because of her appearance. Albina was so scared. Their hate-filled and afraid eyes would haunt her mind for years to come. In Albina's dream, their eyes were blood red and burning like fire. They shouted and shouted yet to their surprise nothing happened. They thought that she was going to disappear and descend back to hell.

"It's not working, Vlad," Linka said. "What do we do?"

Albina continued crying and began to call out, "Mommy! Mommy! I want to go home!"

"Quiet, succubus," one of the men yelled at her. Albina stopped yelling and just cried in fear.

"In order to rid the demon from our presence, we will have to try something else," Vladimir said.

Just then, they heard a knock at the door, and heard a voice call out. It was Anastasia's older brother, Olexei.

"What is going on in there?" he called out. "I can hear screaming all the way from my office. Open up the door now."

The group members looked at each other in fear. Father Romanov had performed exorcisms of demons before. He might be of some help. However, they were afraid that he would never buy the theory that his own niece was a demon. Elder Vladimir opened the door to let him in. He was a tall man in priestly robes. He had brown hair and brown eyes like his sister. He was in his early forties. Albina was relieved.

"I'm glad you're here, Father Romanov," Elder Vladimir said. "We have been trying to perform an exorcism and we need your help."

"Help me, uncle," Albina yelled.

"Shut up," one of the men said while slapping her in the face.

Father Romanov was shocked. Albina rubbed her face while sobbing.

"What are you doing to my niece? Leave her alone!" he said.

"Father, I am sorry to tell you this, but it turns out that she is a demon," Elder Vladimir said. "We have seen it for ourselves. She has the power of ice. We think that your sister summoned her in order to fight the alien invaders. She is in the form of a little girl. I know that this might be hard for you to accept, but we have to send her back before she brings evil down upon all of us."

Olexei pushed through all of them, and he picked up Albina who was sobbing uncontrollably.

"You're insane, all of you," Olexei said. "I know that she is different but it's not because she is a demon. She is touched with an act of God like others have been. She is gifted with power like Samson in the Bible. If she was possessed, then the demon inside her would panic at the sight of holy artifacts. She has been near them many a time and nothing has happened. She prays with me and her mother and learns from the holy word. She is no more evil than any other child is."

"You have been tricked, sir," Father Vladimir yelled. "This demon has hypnotized you, too. We have to get rid of her now before she destroys us all."

"No!"

Olexei started running with Albina in his arms down the hallway. The other people ran after him. Olexei got into his office and shut the door behind him. He put Albina down and locked the door. The other people all started slamming against it in order to force the door to open. Olexei pushed his back against the door to help keep it shut. Albina was so scared.

"What do we do, Uncle Olexei?" Albina yelled.

"I'm going to call the police," he said pulling out his cell phone. "Just stand back."

However, the door gave way and fell over on top of Uncle Olexei, disorienting him and causing him to drop his phone. The men jumped over the door and grabbed Albina dragging her out of the room and down the hall.

"Your reign of terror ends now, succubus," Elder Vladimir shouted into her face holding his crucifix.

Albina kept twisting her head back and trying to look at her uncle, but they kept dragging her forward.

"We are going to get rid of you once and for all, you monster," Elder Vladimir said.

"Follow me," he said motioning to the others.

He opened the door to the boiler room that powered up the heater that kept the building warm.

"If normal methods do not work, then we are going to have to use extreme measures," Elder Vladimir said opening up the door to the furnace.

The two men holding Albina started dragging her closer and closer to it.

"No, please stop," Albina yelled. The men didn't listen.

Albina summoned all the strength that she had and decided to fight.

"I said to stop," Albina screamed as she froze the men who were dragging her right where they stood in layers of ice. Only their heads were free and their hands were free. She shook out of their grip. Linka, her husband, and all the other people ran towards her but Albina froze them, too. They were completely covered in ice except for their heads. They were shivering and could potentially die if they were trapped there long enough.

"Finish the job, monster," Linka said spitefully looking at Albina.

Albina did not respond. She turned around and ran back down the hallway to where Uncle Olexei's office was. He was alive, and he had just crawled out from under the door. However, it was obvious that he was hurt. One of his ribs was broken. Albina stood in the hall in front of the office and looked at him.

"Uncle Olexei?" Albina asked.

Olexei looked at her and smiled with relief.

"Thank God," he said. "How did you get away?"

"I froze them," Albina said.

Olexei looked concerned.

"You didn't kill them. Did you?" he asked.

"No," Albina said.

"Good, hand me my phone. I need to call the police."

Albina flew over the door, landed, and picked up the phone from where it had slid across the room under her uncle's desk.

"Call mommy, too," Albina said as she handed the phone to her uncle.

The police arrived not long afterwards followed by Anastasia. She dropped everything that she was doing as soon as she found out. An ambulance came and picked up Olexei, and Anastasia held her sobbing child in her arms while sitting on the hood of her car. They sat outside while the police were thawing out the criminals inside. Anastasia was furious with Linka and with herself. How could she not have figured out that Linka was crazy? How could she have failed so epically at protecting her only daughter? She was proud of Albina for being strong and brave enough to defend herself even when one of the men struck her in the face. She knew her baby was strong and smart. However, she felt guilty that Albina had to be put in this situation in the first place.

Albina on her end was scared and very confused. She lost some of her innocence that day. She did not understand why those people called her a demon and tried to kill her. However for the time being, she could find comfort in her mother's loving arms. She felt safe and secure since her mother was there. She believed that her mother had everything under control in the way that all young children do. She just wanted to express how scared she was. Albina was not trying to make her mother feel guilty. She was just a scared little kid who needed the love of her mother to help her get through what she was feeling. Albina was burying her face into her mother's left shoulder and sobbing her eyes out. Her mother was silently thinking and rubbing the back of her daughter's head with her right hand.

"I am so proud of you, Albina," Anastasia finally said. "You were so brave. I thank God for that. You were able to fight them off."

"Mommy," Albina said lifting her head. "They told me I was a demon. Am I a demon? Am I really a monster? I don't want to be a monster!"

Anastasia sat her child on her lap and looked her in the eye.

"Do you love me?" she asked.

"Yes," Albina answered appearing confused.

"Do you love God?"

"Yes."

"Then there is no way that you can be a demon, sweetheart. Demons can't love anyone because they're evil."

Albina accepted her mother's explanation and gave her a hug. Just then, the police were dragging out the perpetrators in handcuffs. They had all been arrested for kidnapping and attempted murder. Anastasia scowled deeply at all of them. Albina buried her face in her mother's hair. She did not want to look at the people and Linka again.

However, Anastasia tapped her on the back of the head and Albina looked her in the eye.

"You need to look at them, Albina," Anastasia said.

"Why?" Albina asked.

"When you look at them, you are telling them that you are not afraid of them."

"But Mommy, I am afraid."

"That is why you have to do it. You have to conquer your fear and not let them make you afraid anymore. Do it, Albina."

Albina looked up at the people as they were being led to the police cars in their handcuffs. She looked at them just like her mother instructed her to. One by one all the people were led out. Linka was the last to leave the building. She saw Albina staring at her in the arms of her mother. She shook free of the cops who were holding her and bolted towards Albina as if she was struck by lightning. Anastasia climbed on top of the car while holding Albina. The cops tackled Linka to the ground just before she got to them.

"You are a monstrous woman," Anastasia yelled. "I can't believe I was deceived by you. I never want to see you ever again!"

Linka laughed gently and creepily under her breath as the cops pulled her up off the ground.

Then she said, "My dear woman, you are still the one who is being deceived. That creature in your arms is a demon."

"That is enough out of you. Take her away!"

However, Linka continued to scream as she was being dragged to the station car. Albina could never forget her words or the wild look in her eyes.

"Mark my words! That child is a demon. I knew it from the first moment that I set eyes on her. She is a monster. The Devil may be using her to help you now, but he will go back on his word. That little monster will get you killed! She is cursed and a curse to everyone around her. She is a demon! She is evil, and she will kill you! She is cursed! She is cursed! She is cursed! She is cursed! She is cursed!"

Everything faded to black, but that voice kept echoing in Albina's mind. She couldn't make it stop no matter how hard she tried to block it out. She tossed and turned in her sleep while listening to the voice. Then finally, she woke up.

Albina sat up in her snow and looked at herself in her mirror. She tucked her hair behind her twice pierced ears to reveal the earrings that her mother wore in her dream. She took them off her mother's body when she died. They were her favorites. Albina saw tears streaming down her face as she remembered her life that she thought she had made peace with. She stood up and quietly walked towards the window. Albina opened the window and flew outside. She then sat on the roof and proceeded to cry.

Albina had not thought about that incident in a long time. When she was four years old, her mind quickly moved on to better things. She decided to trust in what her mother had said. It was actually at that point that she got interested in learning more about the Bible and about Russian Orthodox Theology consequently developing her mystic side. She was unusually deep-thinking for a four year old. Although her mother was a Russian Orthodox Christian, she did not discuss these things with Albina because she thought that she was too young to really understand them. However that day after they got home, Albina begged her mother to start teaching those things to her. Her mother was happy with her curiosity, and since she was taking two weeks off to be with her daughter for Christmas anyway, she did it. They would sit on her bed and with her Bible and her Russian Orthodox Theology book, she would explain the mysteries of the unknown in a way that a four year old could understand. Albina enjoyed what she was learning and moved on from that horrible experience. Albina smiled at those memories.

Albina missed her mother more than words could express. She had loved her so much. She always had the answers to every question she had. Anastasia loved Albina and every little thing about her. She instilled in her the deep sense of confidence that she possessed and her elegant manner of speaking and acting around others. She also inspired the growth of her mystic side. She loved her even though some people had considered her to be a monster. GLaDOS's words had touched Albina to her core. She didn't want them to, but they did anyway. Albina wondered whether or not she could possibly be a demon. They reminded her of her persecution that she had endured so long ago. She wondered if Linka was right. Albina wondered if her mother was killed because she was cursed for helping her. She wondered if she was abandoned as a baby because her original parents were demons.

Albina wished that her mother was with her instead of in heaven. She would give her a warm hug and tell her what she needed to hear. Albina bowed her head and cried to herself as the wind blew her hair and her tears away.

God sent her someone else to comfort her instead. Unbeknownst to Albina, Alpha had seen her wake up and fly out of the room in tears. He decided that he wanted to help, so he walked towards the window and tried to get Albina's attention. He jumped on top of Kayla's sleeping body, and he jumped on top of the window sill. Of course, his legs slipped off so he landed on his body with two legs hanging out the window in front and one leg hanging behind him. He used his front two legs to pull himself further and further out the window. Alpha was precariously balanced on the window liable to fall out at any second.

"Albina," Alpha called out.

Albina looked up from her sobbing surprised at her name being called. She then heard her name be called again. She looked over the side of the roof and saw Alpha teetering on the window sill of the building on the verge of falling out.

"Alpha," she said in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"I want to help you," Alpha said. "You're sad."

"I don't need your help," Albina said coldly in embarrassment. "Go back inside."

"I want to help," Alpha said as he began to teeter forward. "Please!"

"Will you be quiet? You're going to wake everyone up."

"I'm coming out."

"No!"

Then suddenly realizing that he was sliding forward, he said, "I'm going to fall. Help!"

"Just push yourself backwards, and you'll fall back in," Albina said.

"I can't. Help me." Alpha's front two legs were struggling to find support on the side of the wall to push him backwards but to no avail. He just kept falling forward.

"Alpha!"

"Help me!" Alpha cried as he fell forward out the window. "Ahhhhh!"

Albina flew off the roof and caught him before he landed on the ground.

"Thank you," said Alpha looking up at her with his light blue eye.

Albina flew up to the window to put him back inside, but he started shrieking.

"No! No! No! No! No!" Alpha yelled. "I want to help."

His yelling woke Kayla up.

"What's going on?" Kayla said half-asleep.

"Nothing," Albina said in defeat. "Alpha and I are just going to be talking outside. Would you shut the window without locking it please?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Kayla mumbled as she telekinetically shut the window and lay back down to sleep.

Albina looked at the turret that she was holding in her arms and then carried him up to the roof with her. She put him down and stood up looking down at him.

"Little turret, what is problem? Why are you being such pest?" Albina asked. Her English always became less correct when she was stressed out.

"I want to help you," Alpha said.

"Yes, I know that, but why? Why do you want to help me?"

"According to my programming, a human cries when they are sad, scared, or otherwise feeling vulnerable. Feeling that way is not good because it means that you can more easily be killed. I don't want you to be killed, so please let me help you. I don't want her to get you."

Albina was annoyed by his behavior. She did not like making her issues everyone else's problem. She would talk to Chell or Chelsea about things sometimes, but she did not want to talk about her problems to a turret. However she realized that this turret was actually developing a self, a personality that wanted to help others, and she did not want to hinder that. So in spite of herself, she decided to indulge him. Albina wanted to encourage this behavior.

"Okay, fine," Albina said. "I'll tell you what's bothering me."

Albina sat down on the side of the roof so that her legs were hanging off the side and her arms were supporting her body as she leaned backwards.

"Ever since GLaDOS called me an ice demon, I've been having the same nightmare every night…" Albina started to say.

"What is a nightmare?" Alpha asked.

"When humans sleep, they often think about things, and they can see their thoughts in front of them like you and I see each other. These thoughts are called dreams. The scary or bad dreams are called nightmares."

"Wow!" Alpha replied sounding amazed.

"Anyways in my nightmare, I relived a memory from childhood. I relived the memory when bad woman and her friends tried to kill me."

"Why would they do that? Did someone tell them to?"

"She thought that I was demon, so I needed to be destroyed."

Alpha was silent, so Albina continued.

"The dreams have been coming for a week now. They started when GLaDOS called me an ice demon. It did not bother me at the time. However, it brought back that horrible memory and now I can't seem to forget about it. I have wondered if it is possible that she is right and I really am a demon. That is why I am upset."

Alpha said nothing but he walked around her and seemed to be observing her. Albina sat up so that her arms were no longer supporting her body in response.

Alpha stopped looking at her and gave his answer.

"There's no way that you can be a demon then because according to my analysis you are a human," Alpha said. "You have the body and appearance of a normal human."

She smiled at his innocent response.

"My skin and my hair are snow white," Albina said gesturing to her body. "My lips are also blue. You have also seen what I can do. There is no way that I can be normal human."

"None of the others are normal humans either, but they are not demons. You are just like all of them," said Alpha.

"No, I'm not," Albina said. "I'm cursed. At least, that is what I'm afraid of. Maybe that is why my parents abandoned me as baby. Maybe that is why my mother was killed for protecting me. Maybe that is why everyone around me is in trouble now. Maybe that is only because I'm cursed. I am doomed to only bring pain to people I love."

Alpha was quiet for a moment. Then he said something surprising.

"Well, you are cursed," Alpha said. "Sylvie said so."

"What?" Albina asked in shock.

"She says that all humans are cursed because of the evil in their hearts and in the world. I asked her what a curse was because I kept hearing you say that word in your sleep," Alpha said.

"You told her?" Albina asked starting to have an angry tone.

"No, I just asked. I swear. She said that that was the only curse that existed."

"You believe her?"

"Yes," Alpha replied happily. "Sylvie knows everything. She's really smart."

Albina turned away wishing that she had his confidence and said, "She's wrong about me. I have had so much pain in my life. I just can't help thinking that I am cursed."

"The others have had bad things happen to them too, but you don't think they're cursed."

Albina looked at him surprised that he said something that smart.

"You only think you're cursed because a couple of mean people said that you were. That doesn't make sense," Alpha said.

Then he stared at the ground and said, "You're not a cursed demon. I'm the one who's a cursed demon."

Albina was taken aback by this comment, too.

Alpha continued sadly, "Sylvie said that humans weren't originally meant to be evil. They were deceived by the Devil into becoming so. I was. I was created to be a monster. All of us were. We receive the order to kill the moment that we are assembled. We cannot violate that order or else we will be killed ourselves. We will be sent to Android Hell by her."

"You did not want to be killer?" Albina asked in surprise.

"No, none of us do. Whenever we kill humans, we tell them that we are sorry. If they kill us, we tell them that we do not hate them or blame them for what they have done. We just have to do what we're told or else she will kill us."

"Then tell me, why did you go with Sylvie? You knew the risks, but you went anyway? I thought she had just hypnotized you."

"She just made it so that I didn't want to listen to GLaDOS anymore. At first, I just did it because I was told to. Now, I do it because I want to. I want to help you humans. I like you. You are great people. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to be a demon anymore. Sylvie said that God would forgive me if I asked him, but I still feel terrible. I have shot people. I have done bad things. I don't want to be bad forever. I don't want to be a demon!"

Albina felt sorry for him. He had spent his life being forced to be a monster. She was able to get her mind off of herself and see his emotional pain. She wanted to think of some way to comfort him. Then, she thought of something.

"You are not a demon, Alpha," she said crouching down so that their eyes were level and resting her right hand on top of his head. "You technically never were."

"I'm not?" Alpha asked.

"No, a demon has no choice about whether to be evil or not. By that, I mean that they are unable to choose to be good. You have chosen to be good now, so there is no way that you can be demon. You have been forgiven now, so you are free from that. You are not doomed to cause pain forever."

As Albina listened to her own words, she was enlightened. This definition of a demon applied to her, too. She realized that GLaDOS and Linka had been wrong about her and why they were wrong. She was not a demon or an elemental spirit or a curse. She could not be because she had the ability to choose to do good or evil. Albina looked different, and she had the ability to destroy. However, she had a choice about how she used her power. Albina was not doomed to only bring pain to the world. The things that happened in her life were not her fault. They were just bad things that had happened to her just like to everyone else. Albina was no different. Those mean words were just mean words. She felt monumentally stupid for not realizing this truth before. It would have saved her many nights of pain. She now knew the truth and had this little turret to thank for it. Albina reached her arms around him and gave him a big hug.

"I'm not demon either," Albina said. "I can't be demon either. I'm not demon! I'm not cursed either. I know that now thanks to you. Thank you!"

"Hooray," Alpha said. "I told you I could help."

"I guess you were right," said Albina humbly.

Just then, Alpha looked up and was terrified by what he saw. He ducked under Albina's arms and ran around her so that she shielded him from the perceived danger.

"Oh my, God!" Alpha cried as he ran to hide behind Albina.

"What is it?" Albina said anxiously standing up and looking around but not seeing anything.

"Up there!"

Albina looked up, but she saw nothing. She was really confused.

"The ceiling is gone," Alpha cried. "There is nothing up there. It's so big! What is it? Why is there nothing up there? Why is it so empty and large? Where does it end up there? Are we going to fall in?"

Albina suddenly realized what he was so afraid of. She smiled.

"Alpha," Albina said. "It is only night sky."

Alpha looked up at the dark night sky full of stars and gazed at it. He walked out from behind Albina and kept staring. His fear slowly melted away to fascination.

"Wow," Alpha said. "So, that is what the sky looks like? I have never seen it before."

"It is beautiful. Isn't it?" Albina said.

"Yeah," Alpha said. "What are those bright dots up there?"

"Those are stars," Albina said.

"You mean like the sun?" Alpha asked.

"Yes."

"Wow! Can I get a closer look at them?" Alpha asked getting really excited.

"I can't go into space. Humans can't breathe there."

"Oh," Alpha said staring at the ground sad.

Albina was sympathetic, so she gave him another offer.

"I can however take you as close as possible," Albina said.

"Hooray!" Alpha said jumping up and down.

"I'll carry you up there. You just have to sit still, so I don't drop you. Alright?"

"Okay!"

Albina picked up Alpha and took off on her wintry winds up into the air.

"We're flying!" exclaimed Alpha. He could barely contain his enthusiasm. He was so excited.

She flew higher and higher up into the sky. Alpha looked down at the ground and was amazed to see the world below grow smaller and smaller. He did not say a word, but he simply stared in absolute awe. Then suddenly, Albina stopped.

"We're here, Alpha," Albina said.

Alpha stopped staring at the ground and looked up at the sky. From where Albina was hovering in the air, Alpha got an even clearer view of the night sky. The stars were so numerous and so beautiful to his curious robot mind and to Albina's healing mind. The beauty was cleansing to her mind. It helped her let go of her sad memories and reminded her of her hope for the future. It reminded her of the day when she would be reunited with her mother and when God Himself would wipe every tear from her eye. Alpha himself was just amazed at how beautiful the scene was. He never knew that the world outside the facility was so beautiful. Albina looked down at Alpha. He was just so joyful and happy. He was so innocent, loving, and amazed by everything in sight. He was just like a child. Albina looked up at the stars once again.

"I wish I was more like you, little turret," Albina said.

"I wish I was more like you," Alpha said. "You're so smart. You should really listen to the words you say sometimes."

Albina nodded humbly realizing that he was right.

Then out of nowhere, he said, "God made the stars, right?"

"Yes," Albina replied.

"God made humans, too?"

"Yes."

"He is a creator. But he isn't like the scientists who created me. Is he?"

"Yes and no. He is brilliantly smart and powerful. He has made many wonderful things, but he loves and cares about all that he has made."

"Including me?"

"Yes, you may have been made by humans, but you still have a soul. I think that comes from God. He loves you, too."

"God must be good then," Alpha concluded.

"How did you figure that one out?" Albina asked puzzled.

"He creates beautiful things and he cares about them. He has the power to do anything, but he uses it to do good things. He must be good. He also made Sylvie and you. I like him."

"He likes you, too."

They hovered in the air staring at the sky for a few minutes when Alpha thought of something else to say.

"She is like God, too," Alpha said.

"Who is?" Albina asked.

"GLaDOS," he replied almost as if he was afraid to say her name.

"No, she isn't," Albina replied as calmly as she could even though she was still angry at her. Her eyes started flashing with anger.

"You're right. She is powerful like God, but she is not really like God. She is evil. She uses her power to only hurt other people," Alpha said unaware of her feelings.

"You're right about that," Albina said calming down her anger once more. "She is more like the Devil."

"The Devil is still around right?"

"Yes. God will destroy him one day though when His Son returns to restore the world."

The conversation went silent for several more minutes as they gazed once more into the night sky. For Alpha, the sky represented the new world outside the facility that he was about to see. There was so much that he didn't know, and he wanted to see it all and know it all. However, he knew that they needed to stop GLaDOS. She was evil, and he just knew that he didn't want her to hurt his new friends.

"Will God help us stop the devil that lives in the facility?" Alpha asked. "I don't want her to hurt you."

"Have faith, little turret," Albina said squeezing his body in a tight hug and rubbing her head against his. "Her time has come. I think God is using us to take her out. We will do it. Don't worry. Don't be scared."

Alpha trusted her words. He believed that she was right. She had to be. God was with her.

Albina yawned and her eyes started drooping shut. Her head rested on his.

"Are you alright?" Alpha asked.

"Is it okay if we land? I'm getting tired," Albina said.

"Okay!"

Albina slowly lowered themselves down until they reached the grass of the ground outside the facility about twenty feet from the wall of the building. She let Alpha down on the ground.

"Thank you," he said to her.

"You're welcome," Albina said as she sat on the ground and lay down upon the grass folding her arms behind her head. She shut her eyes to relax and gave a contented sigh.

"Do you think you will have any more nightmares?" Alpha asked.

"I don't know," Albina replied honestly. "I may never forget what happened, but at least now, I have realized that everything they said about me was untrue and always will be. Thank you!"

Alpha stared at her in silence for a moment.

Then he said, "I'm sorry those people were mean to you. I'm sorry GLaDOS was mean to you, too. They are just monsters. You don't have to let their words bother you anymore."

"I won't, Alpha," Albina said. "I will do my best. Thank you again for being so kind to me. You are a sweet turret."

Suddenly, Alpha noticed that the end of his leg was standing in something squishy. It was dirt. He had never encountered the substance before. He was amazed at it. Alpha picked up his foot, and he looked at it.

"What is this brown stuff?" Alpha asked.

"It is soil," Albina replied without even opening her eyes. "It is the substance that plants grow in."

"Plants?! I know what those are. They grow around the facility."

Alpha looked at the substance at the end of one of his legs in awe then lowered his feet back down. The tip of his front leg sunk a little bit into the dirt. It made him a little happy. He walked in the dirt away from Albina in such a way as to make his feet sink into the dirt on purpose. He loved the way that it felt. He stomped in the dirt in the moonlight joyfully. He jumped up and down so that his legs went even deeper. He suddenly noticed the dew upon a blade of grass and brushed of his legs against it so that the drop of dew fell to the ground. Alpha then looked up and noticed a brown rabbit staring at him. He had never seen an animal like that before. The rabbit had never seen a creature like him either. They locked eyes without looking away. They shared the mutual feeling of curiosity. However, the spell was broken when Alpha took one step forward and the rabbit hopped away into the woods behind him.

"Wait," Alpha said. "Come back!"

Alpha wanted to chase after him in the woods, but the woods looked like a dark and scary place. He didn't want to venture in there alone. Alpha turned around and started walking back towards Albina. The night was quiet except for the wind blowing through the trees and the grass. Alpha was startled by the noise and focused his hearing to listen to it. He looked in the direction of the sound and watched the leaves rustle in curiosity. As Alpha looked up, his eye was naturally drawn back to the beautiful night sky. When he looked at the sky, he saw a shooting star for the first time. Naturally, he was shocked and amazed.

"Woah," Alpha cried.

He turned and ran back towards Albina as fast as he could. He stopped right by her head.

"A star moved! It flew through the sky!" Alpha said.

However, he looked down and realized that Albina was fast asleep.

"It's okay," Alpha said. "I'll tell you when you wake up. Until then, I will protect you."

Alpha proceeded to open up his guns and walk around Albina so that he could guard her.


	15. Chapter 15

It did not take long for GLaDOS to realize that her favorite test subject had gone missing.

After not hearing from the doctor robots, she looked into the room where Chelsea had been. She was not there. GLaDOS tried looking in the hallways and found that the cameras had been broken. She assembled a robot to check the area, and he came back having found absolutely nothing. No doctor robots. No test subject. No anything. GLaDOS's worst fear was realized. Her test subject had vanished and not left a trace of where she had gone.

When she found out, she was furious. It was not the kind of fury that she let out openly. It was the kind of fury that was quiet, unpredictable, and more frightening. She did not devote her energy to expressing her anger, but she devoted her energy that night to finding her subject.

Those freaks had done it. They had taken her child away, but she was going to get her back. GLaDOS was determined. The only problem was how. The blond one disabled all of the cameras on their section of Aperture. The neurotoxin emitters were still being repaired. She had no way to get in contact with or hurting any of them. Or did she?

The blond one had done something to Blue and Orange to prevent her from tracking them and thus finding a radio frequency to contact them on. However, she had managed to contact Blue before so she could do it again possibly. That was her only chance. GLaDOS knew that Blue and Orange were working against her now. Orange had turned against her completely, but she felt that she could possibly reach Blue. He had only rebelled against her to protect his friend. Somehow if she could persuade him that there was no danger to either of them, then he would convince Orange and come crawling back to her. Even if she could not persuade Blue to return, she could still pinpoint his location and catch all of the freaks in one place. She had been letting them run free for too long anyway.

The truth was that she wanted Atlas and P-Body both back. Ever since they left, good help had been hard to come by. The doctor robots had failed her. Those two never would have. They would not have allowed Chelsea to escape. GLaDOS was sure of that. Besides that, she missed them. During the past twenty years except for the baby crows, they were the closest things she had to friends.

GLaDOS decided that she would try it. She sent out the frequency of Blue's radio transmitter in one direction. When that didn't work, she sent in out in another direction. Then when that didn't work, she sent it out in yet another direction. This time, the result was a jackpot. GLaDOS was getting a reading.

Atlas meanwhile was still asleep with a broken heart lying in his hard chair. In his sleep, he started to dream. In his dreams, he saw Sylvie in all her beauty. He longed to be with her, but was crushed knowing that she would never be his. He was sitting on the ground staring at her. It was in the midst of one of these dreams that Atlas heard her voice, the last voice that he wanted to hear.

"Blue, is that you?" GLaDOS said. "Blue?"

In his dream, the images disappeared. Atlas stood up and looked around in a panic looking for the source of the voice.

"I'm right here," GLaDOS said.

Blue turned around and saw her. She looked the way that she normally did but was hanging from the ceiling in his mind which was a white empty space.

"Thank God," GLaDOS said relieved. "I can't believe that it worked. I am actually here because I was able to hack into your mind with a radio signal. Isn't it wonderful?"

Atlas started to run away and hit himself in the head in a panic. He was trying to wake himself up. However, GLaDOS appeared in front of him.

"Don't run away, Blue," she said. "I really need to talk to you. It's urgent."

Atlas turned away and ran off again hitting himself harder than before. She appeared in front of him again.

"Blue, this is ridiculously pointless," GLaDOS said. "I'm here, and I'm not going to leave until I talk to you. You might as well stop trying to run."

Atlas realized that running was pointless, so he stopped but did not stop trying to focus on waking up. GLaDOS deployed a tracking signal to pinpoint Atlas's location so that she could find them, but while that was going on, she kept talking to hold his attention.

"How have you been, Blue? What has life been like living with your family of freaks? Have they been treating you and Orange well? Do you want to come back?"

Blue looked straight at her and then turned around crossing his arms.

"Don't be cruel to me, Blue. You have no idea how it's been. I've missed you and Orange. The other robots are so completely inept. They let her escape."

Atlas froze in shock. This was fantastic news.

"I don't know how she did it at this point, but she managed to get away. I suspect that she had help. What I do know is that you two never would have let it happen. The fools who allowed it to happen were killed by her and now the entire facility is in jeopardy. That is why I need you to come back. I am willing to forget about everything that you two have done and bury the hatchet so to speak if you come back to me. I am desperate for help. What do you say?"

Atlas stayed where he was and refused to give a response. GLaDOS could see that he was giving her the cold shoulder, so she knew that she would have to try new tactics.

"Why are you being so cold to me, Atlas?"

Atlas tensed up at the sound of her saying his name. She had never referred to him by his name before. GLaDOS then appeared right in front of him.

"I know for a fact that you only rebelled against me because you were trying to protect your friend. You two are very close. You would do anything for each other. I know that."

GLaDOS was quiet for a moment as she analyzed his memories.

Then she said, "It looks like that it's not the first time that this has happened either. I had wondered whether or not that one test subject was just a mistake in the system."

GLADOS was referring to Atlas's memory of P-Body releasing a test subject and letting him escape into the world. He had let him out in order to observe him. P-Body was the one who was interested in humans. However after P-Body let him wonder around and watched him for a while, the human made his way to the surface and disappeared. Atlas made sure that GLaDOS never found out about it in order to protect P-Body.

"You have always protected him, Atlas. You are a good friend. He is such a moron always getting himself into trouble and dragging you down with him. It's amazing that you haven't dumped him as a friend already."

Atlas gave out an "hmph!" and turned away from her once again.

"You betrayed me to save him. I know where your loyalties lie. I promise that I won't make that mistake again. If you come back, I will allow him to come back, too. I won't kill him or ask you to turn against him. Just back to me."

Atlas twisted around to flash her a look that said, "Why should I?" He knew her well enough to not trust her. Then he turned back around and walked forward. Atlas had to wake up and tell the others the good news. GLaDOS was getting frustrated of dealing with his attitude. He had been corrupted by those humans. She had lost him. That was when she noticed something…interesting.

"I don't think you really care about those humans, Atlas. You just care about her," GLaDOS said.

Atlas stopped dead in his tracks. She knew about Sylvie. GLaDOS teleported to right in front of him.

"It looks like you have become more human than I ever expected you to be," she said with amusement. "You have actually fallen in love with a human and the blond one of all people. You cared about her, but she broke your heart. She chose to go with that hideous dragon instead."

Atlas just stared at the ground in sorrow. He wanted to, but he couldn't hide his pain. GLaDOS saw that and jumped on the opportunity.

"I'm sorry, Atlas," GLaDOS said soothingly. "That is a pain that I wanted to spare you from. I know what it is to be deceived and let down by humans. There is one thing though that I can tell you from experience. You cannot let them get away with it. You have to make them pay for how they have treated you."

Atlas looked up at her.

"I know from experience that if you don't make them pay when you have the chance they will keep walking on you forever. You can't let them do that. We have to show them that we are not theirs to play with like toys. We can do what we want to them. We can stop them."

Atlas looked around because he was unsure about her plan. He was confused and wanted the pain to stop, but he was not sure about how to feel. Atlas kind of wanted things to be normal again.

"It will make the pain feel better, Atlas," GLaDOS said. "Just come back to me. You and Orange will come back and all will be forgiven. We will get back at her together. What do you say?"

GLaDOS's plan had its merits. However, the more Atlas thought the more that he knew that things would never be normal. He was not ignorant anymore. He knew that what he did was wrong. He could not just continue to live that way pretending that he was doing nothing wrong whenever he watched humans test.

Atlas also thought about his new friends. He did not want to betray them even if he was hurt. He liked them, and P-body liked them. They were annoying sometimes, but they were also funny and kind. Humans were not distant objects as test subjects anymore. They were living, breathing, feeling, and thinking souls as distinct as he and P-Body were. He could not pretend that he felt nothing for them like he did before. Furthermore, they treated him more like an equal than like a slave. They actually cared about how he felt and tried to be kind to him. GLaDOS would never treat them like that.

Besides that more importantly, P-Body liked them. If Atlas betrayed them, he knew that P-Body would never look him in the eye ever again. He could not live with that.

Finally, there was Sylvie. He cared about her, and in spite of the pain that she had caused him, he could not watch her die. After all, it was not like she hurt him on purpose. Atlas knew that he was changed and could not live with the consequences of his actions knowing any of what he knew now. He made up his mind.

Atlas firmly looked GLaDOS in the eye and shook his head from one side to the other.

GLaDOS was shocked, "What? Are you really giving up your life for those humans? They are heart breakers. You know that now, but you still want to go with them. You know nothing about what life is like out there. You barely know what humans are like. You still want to take that risk?"

Atlas nodded again.

"You disappoint me, Blue. I created you. Why are you going against me like this? Is it because of her? Humans are heart breakers. She is just going to break your heart again. They all do. It's best just to take them out so they don't keep disappointing you. They cannot be trusted. Does our past history mean nothing to you?"

Atlas turned around and started walking away.

"You really are hopeless then," GLaDOS said with a sigh. "It's alright though. You have already helped me enough."

Atlas turned around in his tracks and stared at her in fear.

"What? You mean you didn't know? I must have forgotten to mention it. I have been using your brain signals to track you this entire time. I had to talk to you in order to win enough time to find you. That is actually the main reason I am here. I didn't really want you two ungrateful robots back that badly. I know where you are now and am deploying robots as we speak. From your location, they should arrive in about six minutes. According to your memories, you don't know anything about how she escaped, but I'm sure your friends did something. I'll get them to talk even if I have to torture you in front of the blond to do it. If that doesn't work, I can use you all as an incentive to persuade my lost subject to return. Either way, I'm going to get her back, and you are going to help me whether you want to or not."

Atlas turned back around and ran away in a panic. He had to get out. He had to save the others. He had to wake up from this nightmare.

"What are you trying to do, Blue?" GLaDOS said. "There is no escape. I can control you remotely. I'm going to keep you asleep until the others get here which should be in about five minutes now."

Meanwhile, Sylvie had just exited the bathroom and was preparing to go back to sleep when she noticed that Atlas was moving around and kicking in his sleep like he was having some kind of nightmare. Sylvie walked over to him sleepy yet concerned.

"What is wrong with him?" Sylvie thought to herself.

She bent down beside him and tried to shake him to wake him up. Atlas was stirring around in his sleep, but he wasn't waking up. Sylvie pat the side of his head gently, but he still wasn't waking up. Sylvie started to feel uneasy, so she put her hand on his head to read his mind. She was scared by what she heard. It shook the sleepiness out completely. Sylvie heard GLaDOS's voice. Sylvie stood up and backed away.

"How could she have found us?" Sylvie thought.

She pondered over what to do. They needed to run, but she could not leave him. Atlas was in GLaDOS's clutches. She had to help him. She did not want Atlas to suffer at her hand anymore, especially not for helping her. Sylvie had to face her, so she knelt down close to him and placed her hand on his head once again. She would face GLaDOS inside of Atlas's mind.

Sylvie telepathically entered into Atlas's mind. She emerged in the white abyss of Atlas's dream. Sylvie looked up to see GLaDOS and Atlas. GLaDOS was silently brooding over him, and Atlas was trying to run away and escape.

"Atlas!" Sylvie yelled.

Atlas and GLaDOS looked up. Atlas ran straight over to Sylvie. Her sweet French-accented voice was music to his ears. Sylvie and GLaDOS stared right into each other's eyes.

"Are you really here or are you a figment of his imagination?" GLaDOS asked.

"I'm here, and I'm not going to let you hurt my friend anymore," Sylvie said. "Get out now!"

"Look at this, Blue. It seems that she cares about you after all."

"Come on, Atlas. I'll get you out of here," Sylvie said to him ignoring what GLaDOS was saying.

She grabbed his arm and started to run away with him in order to mentally transfer him out of his mind.

"So, I take it that he hasn't told you then?" GLaDOS asked.

"Told me what?" Sylvie asked turning around on her heels. Atlas pulled on her arm. They didn't have the time for this.

"It's so adorable. It's also completely pathetic. He was madly in love with you, but you broke his heart. You rejected him for that dragon, you monster."

Atlas bowed his head in shame. He was found out. He was so embarrassed.

"Atlas, is that true?" Sylvie asked as she turned towards him.

Atlas nodded his head in a dazed stupor.

"Oh, Atlas!" Sylvie said. "I'm so sorry."

Atlas shook out of his stupor. He was embarrassed, but he knew that they didn't have any time to waste. Atlas knew that GLaDOS was just trying to stall for time. He pulled on Sylvie's arm to leave once again.

"He was just telling me about how cruel you were to him, about how you ignored him, and about how he actually wanted to take revenge," GLaDOS said.

"Atlas," Sylvie said still looking at him while standing in place.

Atlas shook his head to indicate that it wasn't true. He pulled on her even harder to make her move, but she wouldn't budge. They were running out of time.

"He's lying to you now," GLaDOS said. "He doesn't want you to hear the truth. That is why he is trying to pull you away."

Sylvie stood there stunned. Atlas knew that he had to act soon or else GLaDOS would kill everyone. He had to do something desperate. He ran in front of Sylvie and slapped her in the face.

"Atlas," Sylvie said in shock holding her left hand on the hurt spot of her face.

"Perhaps, he didn't love you as much as I thought he did," GLaDOS said more stunned than Sylvie was.

Atlas had Sylvie's attention now. He picked up her right hand and placed it on his head. He wanted her to read his mind. Sylvie read his mind and in an instant knew everything. They had to run. They only had about three minutes to live.

"Let's get out of here," Sylvie said.

Atlas nodded, she grabbed his arm, and in an instant, they vanished leaving GLaDOS alone back in her main chamber. She checked the progress of the robots. They were closing in quickly.

Meanwhile, Sylvie and Atlas woke up with a start. Sylvie was breathing hard. That woke up Hugo and P-Body.

"Sylvie," Hugo said sitting upright. "What is wrong?"

Sylvie ran to the couch and started putting her few belongings into her backpack.

"Everybody wake up now!" Sylvie yelled.

Everyone started to stir.

"What is happening, Sylvie?" Kayla asked sleepily as the others shook awake.

Sylvie ran over and stuffed Kayla's blanket, iPhone charger, and iPhone into Kayla's backpack.

"GLaDOS hacked into Atlas's mind," Sylvie said. "Chelsea is free, but GLaDOS now knows where we all are. She is sending robots after us so we have to get out of here now."

Then looking around, she asked, "Where are Albina and Alpha?"

Suddenly, there was a sound outside the door. The robots had arrived. They couldn't open the door because it was blocked by ice.

Kayla reacted the fastest. She telekinetically opened the window, and she picked up the backpacks and everyone off the ground. Brandon reached down and grabbed his portal gun just in time.

"Kayla, what are you doing?" he yelled.

"I'm getting us out of here," Kayla said. "Let's go!"

As the robots beat away on the other side of the door, Kayla flew out the window and pulled everyone else out behind her. P-Body took the opportunity to spin around upside down. Atlas looked back in fear.

As Kayla was flying outside the window, she saw Albina sleeping in the grass.

"Albina!" Kayla yelled. "Albina!"

Albina didn't stir, but she got Alpha's attention.

"What's wrong?" Alpha asked.

"Wake up Albina," Kayla said to him.

Alpha shot a few rounds of bullets in the opposite direction. Albina bolted upwards immediately. She looked at Alpha who pointed his foot in the direction of Kayla. Albina twisted her body in Kayla's direction. Albina was surprised by what she saw.

"What happened?" Albina yelled.

"Albina," Kayla yelled. "Chelsea has escaped, and GLaDOS has found us. Get up here. We have to run."

"Okay," Albina responded.

She picked up Alpha and flew upwards. Kayla landed on the roof and dropped everyone there. Albina landed there and set Alpha down.

"That was some quick thinking, Kayla," Roscoe said. "Good job! But we're not out of the woods yet, they can still find us. They will be able to tell that we were there. We have to keep moving."

Albina flew up in the air.

"I'll buy us some time," Albina said. "Kayla, you and Sylvie know the layout of the facility. Find another place to hide."

"How will you know where we are?" Kayla asked. Albina was silent.

Then she answered her own question. "I'll take everyone there and come back for you. Okay?"

"Okay," Albina replied flying towards the room.

Before anyone had the time to react, Kayla picked everyone else except Hugo telekinetically and flew up in the air. Hugo changed into a fire man and followed her. She looked down and saw the top window of one of the bathrooms. They would have to hide there for now. She flew down there and put everyone down around the window.

"You can't break the window, Kayla," Roscoe said knowing her thoughts. "If they sent robots out here, they would see it."

"I'll just have to rip it out by the frame," Kayla replied.

"Or," Brandon said. "I could just phase us all through."

"I suppose that would make things easier," Kayla said.

Brandon and everyone except Kayla held hands. Brandon phased them all through as Kayla telekinetically lowered them all to the ground. Kayla pulled out her spray paint can and sprayed an x on the window.

"Kayla, why did you do that?" Roscoe asked. "Now, they will find us for sure."

"We'll just have to run as soon as Albina gets back," Kayla replied. "I'm sorry. I didn't know how else to find this bathroom."

"Okay! Just hurry, Kayla."

"Got it!"

In the bathroom, everyone sat down but Sylvie walked towards Atlas in the bathroom and gave him a hug.

"Thank you for saving our lives again," Sylvie said out loud.

Then she whispered to him, "I'm sorry that I hurt you. Can you ever forgive me?"

Atlas nodded his head.

Sylvie smiled and said, "I may not love you like I love Hugo, but you will always be my friend."

Sylvie let go of him and walked back to Hugo. She sat down next to him and rested her head on his right shoulder.

P-Body who had overheard everything tapped Atlas on the head. He turned to look at him. Atlas chirped at him to ask him what was going on. P-Body chirped and pointed at her to ask if she really knew. Atlas nodded with humiliation. P-Body understood and wrapped his arm around him for support.

Meanwhile, Albina had flown into the employee lounge and was freezing everything in several layers of ice. The robots on the other side of the door were desperately trying to push their way through. She was almost done. Kayla flew outside the window.

"Do you need help?" Kayla asked.

Albina turned around to see Kayla hovering right outside the open window.

"Yes, could you shut window when I come out so that I can freeze it shut?" Albina asked.

"Yes," Kayla said.

Albina finished freezing the room, and then she flew out the window. Kayla shut it telekinetically, and Albina froze it shut.

"Let's go," Albina said.

"Right," Kayla said.

Kayla led the way while Albina followed closely behind her. After an awkward moment of silence, Kayla decided to say something. She did not like fighting with her sister in Christ. Kayla decided to be the one to break the ice.

"Albina," Kayla said. "I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for slamming you against the wall. That wasn't very nice."

"I'm sorry for making you cry," Albina said. "I am impressed with how well you have done. Perhaps, you aren't as immature as I thought you were."

Kayla smiled.

"Yay," she yelled while doing a somersault in the air.

"Quiet down," Albina said. "Do you want GLaDOS to find us?"

"Sorry," Kayla said quietly.

"You still have serious work to do before you are anywhere near ready to fight the Combines."

"Must resist urge to say sarcastic comment," Kayla thought to herself. "Must resist."

"Okay," Kayla said.

Albina noticed that she was trying to act more mature than usual. She wanted to see how far that she was willing to take it. She just had to see an opportunity for it. They soon arrived at the bathroom where everyone was hiding.

"You marked it with an x?" Albina asked incredulously. "You definitely have a lot to learn."

"Why are you giving me so much grief anyways?" Kayla asked.

"It is just so fun to mess with you."

The two girls landed on top of the glass.

"How are we supposed to get in?" Albina asked.

"We are not going to get in," Kayla said. "All of us are going somewhere else."

Kayla telekinetically lifted everyone into the air and pulled them towards the ceiling. They all looked up to see Kayla through the glass window. Brandon and everyone else understood immediately as they grabbed hands with Alpha being held by Sylvie on the end and phased through the ceiling. Kayla pulled them up into the air with her as Albina flew behind them. She sped up and got next to where Kayla was.

"You know," said Albina. "I think that that x may be for the best. It will lead them on a wild goose chase. They will look for us in the opposite direction. You're smarter than we thought you were."

Kayla smiled and said, "Thanks!"

"We will have to move somewhere far from this side of the facility," Roscoe said. "That way, they won't be looking for us in the right area. Hey, Sylvie?"

"Yes?" Sylvie responded.

"Have you had a chance to map this place out?" he asked.

Sylvie smiled as she replied, "I know this entire place like the back of my hand."

"Perfect," Roscoe said. "Do you know of any bathrooms or anything like that on the other side of this facility?"

"Bien sur (Of course)," she said in French. "I know of another bathroom on the other side with a sun roof like the last one."

"Kayla, let me go," Hugo said. "I'll find this bathroom and leave a beacon of light for you to follow."

Kayla let Hugo fall, and he changed into a man on fire. He flew straight to the other side of the facility to find the bathroom. Once he found it, he kept his word. Hugo stood on the side of the sun roof to the bathroom. Kayla lowered everyone down on the roof of the building. Roscoe looked out at the horizon and saw it just beginning to light up. He looked at his watch. It was 5:15am.

"You know what to do, Brandon," Kayla asked.

Albina picked up Alpha, and everyone held hands as Brandon phased them through. Kayla telekinetically lowered everyone to the ground.

Once they reached the ground, everyone lay down exhausted and stopped to catch their breath.

"I hope that this floor is clean," said Albina. "Otherwise, I may get warts."

"I keep telling you to wear shoes," Hugo said.

"You know that I don't like shoes. They just get in the way of my ice."

"They protect your feet."

"That is what ice is for."

"Whatever, Albina."

Kayla was laying on the ground next to Roscoe.

"Hey, Roscoe," Kayla said turning her head towards him. "What time is it?"

Roscoe pulled his right arm up to look at his watch again.

"It is 5:17am," he said.

Kayla shut her eyes for a second to summon her strength. Then, she flew up into the air over everyone who was still lying on the ground.

"Everybody, we have to keep moving," Kayla said. "Let's go!"

Nobody moved.

"Come on, guys," Kayla said. "Didn't you hear Sylvie? Chelsea is free now. She could use our help. We need to find her now. Let's go!"

Sylvie and Brandon sat up.

Kayla pressed on. She had to encourage them.

She said, "You have all been doing great, but now we have to press on harder than we have before. Chelsea is free and she is with Jeff, but we don't know what kind of condition she escaped in. She could be hurt. We have to find them both. Not only that, we have to find my grandpa, Aunt C, and Zaki and free all the prisoners. Then after that's over, we have to slay the beast herself. I know that it sounds like a lot, but God has been with us so far. We are stopping her evil reign. We are doing his work. With his strength, we can do anything like it says in Philippians 4:13. Come on, guys! Let's go to the roof. It's too easy to fall asleep in here. We need to read the Bible, we need to pray, and we need to prepare for what we must do."

Brandon stood up. He knew that she was right. He had to save Chelsea. He looked at Kayla.

"Albina, could you move me to the roof?" Brandon asked. "I'll phase through, and then we can phase everyone through one at a time."

"Why?" Kayla asked him confused. "I could just fly everyone up at once."

"You might wear yourself out with all the heavy lifting," Brandon replied. "You are going to need your strength today. We can't have you getting worn out before we even get the day started."

"I can handle it," Kayla said defiantly.

"Let him do it," Roscoe said putting his head on her right shoulder.

Kayla turned around to look at him. He gave her a look that said Brandon was right and that she needed to listen. Kayla conceded.

"Fine," Kayla said with a sigh.

"I'll carry you up to the window," Albina said.

She grabbed Brandon's arm and pulled him into the air. She struggled, but she managed to get him to a place where he could phase through the window and get on top of the roof.

Hugo flew up first and handed Brandon a glove. Brandon phased his hand through the glass, grabbed the glove, put it on, and then phased Hugo through. Next, Albina pulled up Sylvie and then carried Alpha.

Atlas and P-Body awaited their turns. Albina looked at them and breathed deeply in preparation. With their metal frames, they would be the heaviest of all. Sylvie watched nervously from the roof. She did not want her new friends to break. Albina grabbed Atlas's right arm and P-Body's left arm. She flew up upwards but only managed to get them an inch off the ground before she started struggling to go any higher. Atlas and P-Body on their end felt like their arms were coming off. They chirped in concern, but only Sylvie could understand them. Sylvie could not take the sight. She grabbed Brandon's arm.

"Phase me through," she pleaded.

Brandon phased her head through so she could yell at Albina.

"Stop it, Albina," Sylvie yelled. "You're going to break off their arms. Put them down."

Albina let them fall on the ground.

"This is not going to work. They are way too heavy for you. You're going to have to do something else," Sylvie said.

"Okay," Albina said sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall for a moment. She was frustrated and exhausted, but she kept her composure and came up with another plan. Albina stood up.

"What are you going to do?" Sylvie asked.

"I'm going to make ice stairs," Albina said. "Everyone, stand back now."

Sylvie pulled her head back through the window. Kayla, Roscoe, Atlas, and P-Body backed up against the wall. Albina stood in front of the sinks and quickly made stairs out of ice that reached all the way up to the sun window. Atlas and P-Body looked on in absolute wonder. They had never seen her do this much with ice before. Before they knew it, Albina was finished.

"Come on, you two," Albina said as she turned around and beckoned to them to come.

They were nervous. P-Body walked up to it and Atlas walked up behind him. Albina smiled to comfort them.

"It is okay," Albina said as she stepped on to it. "It is solid. It will support your weight."

Albina then turned around and walked all the way up to the top.

"See?" Albina said turning around to face them. "It is safe."

P-Body quickly walked up the stairs until he reached the top where Albina was. Atlas however was more hesitant. He took one step on the stairs and then hesitantly took another step on the next stair. P-Body looked at him, face palmed, and walked down to him. He grabbed Atlas's hand and pulled him up behind him. P-Body ran to the top of the stairs dragging Atlas behind. Brandon phased both of the robots through. Then Albina phased through behind them. Kayla was about to fly to the top of the stairs to get herself phased through, but Roscoe did something unexpected. He started clapping. Kayla turned to look at him and he was smiling and nodding his head. Kayla realized that he was showing how proud he was for her maturity. Young people often need to experience this kind of encouragement. It does a world of good. She smiled at him as a reply.


	16. Chapter 16

A few hours later, Chelsea's eyelids opened. She looked outside the broken glass to see the dim flickering lights of the old test chamber. She sat up to see Jeffrey still in the form of a border collie asleep at the foot of her makeshift bed, so she did her best not to make any noise. Chelsea breathed in and out contentedly. For the first time in a long time, she felt truly happy. She was free. She would be able to sleep in her own bed that night. She would sleep that night knowing that the captives were free and the evil queen was dead. Chelsea wrapped the blanket around her body and turned around to pick up the backpack. She put it on the cushion in front of her and started to dig through it. After about a minute, she found what she was looking for: a Bible. Chelsea figured that she could read it while waiting for Jeffrey to wake up.

After finding what she was looking for, Chelsea set the backpack aside, stood up with the blanket wrapped around her and the Bible in her arms, and walked to the bathroom of the office. She flipped on the light switch and was surprised to actually see lights come on. Chelsea stepped in and shut the door. After doing her business and washing her hands, she sat down on the ground to read the Bible. It was a thicker Bible because it contained the Apocrypha.

Jeffrey and his family were Catholic. They were a family from a small Catholic Church community that wondered from place to place until they found the hotel. Jeffrey was only a young child at the time, so he had no memory of any of the traumatizing events that haunted his parents.

Anyways, Chelsea was happy to be able to read a Bible again. For the Christian, the Bible is the refreshing water that gives the spirit life. Living without it causes them to die from thirst. Chelsea had memorized entire passages, but it was not the same as having the whole book in front of her. She started flipping through the pages to find the passage that she remembered reading last. Chelsea paused as her eye got caught on a passage from Psalms. It was Psalm 22.

She read, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. 'He trusts in the Lord,' they say, 'let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.' Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother's womb you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen. I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows. The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him—may your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—those who cannot keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!"

Chelsea looked up. These words literally brought tears to her eyes. These words that were not only a prophecy of the trials of Christ but also the sorrowful cry of a suffering man written thousands of years before touched her heart. She had suffered from so much fear during the past month. Chelsea was very grateful that she was free. She was grateful that she was finally safe.

The more that she thought however, the more Chelsea also felt guilt. She felt guilty that she had been so helpless throughout the whole ordeal. She had managed to free Albina and Brandon, but she could not free herself. Chelsea knew that she had done the best she could but she also felt bad for not being able to do more. Chelsea also thought about the people who were still afraid and still helpless, the slaves of the Combines. They were trapped and calling out for help, but she with all her gifts had not really thought about doing anything for them. Chelsea could not believe that she was going to be sleeping in her own bed that night, but millions of people were languishing in slavery and horror. She did not want to imagine what the monsters were doing to them. She felt called to help Albina and do something. However, she also still felt weak and tired. Chelsea had just endured a horrible ordeal and did not want to imagine fighting alien monsters at that point in time. She felt so tired and so weak.

She curled up into a ball on the floor.

"Oh, God," Chelsea prayed. "I don't want to fight aliens. I don't want to fight GLaDOS. I don't even want to leave this spot on the floor. I could die here. I don't have the strength to do anything. I'm not strong or capable of doing anything for anyone anymore."

She felt the arms of God wrap around her. Chelsea felt inspired to look further into the Bible for the strength that her weary soul needed. She found it in Isaiah 40 verses 28-31.

Chelsea read, "…The LORD is the everlasting God…He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

These words comforted Chelsea a lot. She was reminded that she did not have to be a big, strong warrior in order to serve God. God gave weak people the ability to do things for Him. He also used bad situations to give normal people the opportunity to be heroes. God must have given her gifts for a reason. Her gifts came from this horrible place, but she could still use them for something good. Chelsea lay on the cold, tiled floor wrapped in a blanket praying for a while longer. Then she sat up and flipped through the Bible to find the chapter that she last remembered reading, 1 Corinthians 1. She read through that chapter and was comforted by the words. Her favorite verse was verse 27 which says, "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."

Chelsea felt weary and weak, and she had no idea what she was doing. However, that did not matter. God uses the weak, so he would use her, too. She and her friends could change the world. No human should ever have to suffer like she has. Chelsea had always felt responsible for the lives of her friends and family. She suddenly felt a great duty to these people who she had not really thought about before, too. Chelsea wanted to free them and defeat the Combines so that no one would ever have to live in servile fear ever again. They only had to free themselves, the people in the facility, and slay the beast. Chelsea was feeling confident.

She cracked open the door to look out on Jeffrey. He was still asleep. Chelsea knew that he had worked hard and did not want to wake him before he was ready, so she shut the bathroom door again. Until Jeffrey woke up, she had nothing to do. Chelsea placed the Bible in her lap and decided that she wanted to read Revelations. However as Chelsea was flipping through, her eyes stopped on the passage 1 Corinthians 13. That was the chapter in which Paul talked about how to truly love another person. It was read at all the weddings, and Chelsea had memorized it by heart.

Nevertheless, Chelsea read, "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Chelsea froze in shame. She realized that she had committed a great wrong. All the time that she was with GLaDOS, she had not shown her an ounce of love. Chelsea had spoken the truth and had said wise things. She had had faith and suffered hardship. However, she had failed in the greatest duty that Christians were called to. Chelsea had failed to love that monster. She was impatient, rude, unkind, angry, and held everything that GLaDOS had done to her mother against her. Chelsea realized that she was unwilling to forgive her. She harbored the same hatred that she had always harbored against her. Living in such a way was unacceptable. Chelsea knew that.

But at the same time, she wondered if she needed to even bother with forgiving her when they were just going to kill her anyway. Chelsea had never killed anyone before. However, she was fine with the idea of killing GLaDOS. Sometimes, killing evil people was the only way to stop them. Chelsea was taught that her whole life. God praised Jael for killing Sisera in the Bible. That was the only way to stop him from harming Israel. Chelsea knew that killing GLaDOS would be the only way to stop her, too. If they didn't kill her, she would only find other humans to kill. GLaDOS could not be allowed to kill any more people. That was righteous reasoning. Chelsea had no problem with it.

However, Chelsea wondered if that was the real reason that she was killing her. Did she not just want revenge for her mother and now for herself? Chelsea knew that revenge was meaningless and ultimately a bad motive. Vengeance was supposed to be carried out by God alone. Chelsea knew that she was wanting all the wrong things.

"God," Chelsea said. "Can you blame me? I have been through hell. I can't forgive like you can. I just can't."

She felt conflicted. Chelsea wanted to be a good Christian, but she couldn't deny the anger and the hatred that she was harboring in her heart. She could not just let it go in the name of forgiveness.

Chelsea stood up and walked towards the bathroom mirror. She looked like a mess. Her face was dirty, her hair was messy, and her teeth felt disgusting. Chelsea tiptoed out of the bathroom to borrow Jeffrey's backpack for supplies. Jeffrey was still sleeping soundly as a border collie. She unwrapped the blanket from around her body and laid it over him. Then Chelsea turned around and walked back to the bathroom. After shutting herself in, she dug through it for supplies. Chelsea found toothpaste, and she used her right index finger to brush her teeth. When she was done with it, she found an extra bar of soap in a box in a plastic bag. Chelsea smiled. Jeffrey thought of everything. She walked to the sink and washed her face and her arms. Chelsea found some paper towels to dry herself off with. Then after that, she found a brush to fix her hair with. Chelsea looked in the mirror and was more or less satisfied with how she looked. She did not like that she was dressed like a prostitute wearing no real clothing, but that could not be helped. She would find clothes later.

Chelsea put everything away and then sat down against the wall once again. She looked down at her hands and noticed that the bandages where her IVs had been were still there. She decided to tear them off. After she did so, she looked up and noticed the bandages wrapped around her left shoulder. Chelsea had no idea about why that was there. She walked up to the mirror, and she created a disc. With her disc, Chelsea was able to slice through the thick bandages. She pulled them off slowly until they were all in the sink. Then when she was done, she looked up and covered her mouth with her hands in shock. Chelsea wanted to scream. The circular Aperture Science logo had been branded upon her left shoulder in the same spot where her tattoo was on her right shoulder. It was now a permanent scar in that shape. Chelsea slowly backed away from the mirror in shock and disgust. She felt as if GLaDOS had violated her.

Chelsea had read in a book about how slaves were branded either as a form of punishment or as a way of a master showing their superior status over them. It instilled fear in them because the act meant that their masters could do whatever they wanted with them. GLaDOS without a doubt meant for Chelsea to feel this way. It was a way of reminding her of her inferior status. GLaDOS wanted Chelsea to know that she was hers to do with as she pleased. If she behaved, she would be treated well, but if not, there would be punishment. Chelsea was her slave. GLaDOS had wanted her to believe this fact as deeply as she believed in God. That was why the brand was at the same spot as her tattoo was on her right shoulder. To make matters worse, the mark was even more permanent. Even if Chelsea left, the scar would still be there. She would always remember the horrors that occurred in this place. Everyone else would always ask about it, too.

"How in the hell can anyone be this cruel?" Chelsea whispered to herself as she sank down to the floor. "God, do you see why I can never forgive her? Do you see what she has done to me? She's a monster."

Chelsea curled her legs up close to her stomach, folded her arms on top of her legs, and rested her head face down on top as she trembled in shock and fear.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey woke up in the other room. He opened his eyes, stood up, and stretched out his dog legs while he was yawning. Jeffrey noticed that Chelsea had laid the blanket on him. He turned around and noticed that she was not there. Jeffrey looked up and noticed that his backpack was missing and the bathroom light was on. That had to be where she was. Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a human, and he wrapped the blanket around himself and walked over to the bathroom. The door was cracked open. He peeked in to see Chelsea in her ball of misery. Jeffrey saw that the bandages had been removed from her left arm. She knew about the scar, and she was upset.

Jeffrey wanted to find some way of making her feel better. He shapeshifted into a dragonfly allowing the blanket to fall on the floor and walked through the crack under the door. Then Jeffrey flew onto her shoulder. He walked up to her left ear. Jeffrey sang a song from "Sweeney Todd," a musical they both liked.

"I feel you, Johanna," he sang. "I feel you. Do they think that walls can hide you? Even now, I'm at your window. I am in the dark beside you buried sweetly in your raven hair, Johanna."

Chelsea smiled. She appreciated the sentiment that he was expressing. Jeffrey was saying that he was there for her no matter what happened. He had an odd way of expressing himself sometimes but then again so did she. Chelsea lifted up her head and looked at the dragonfly on her left shoulder.

"Hey, Jeffrey," Chelsea said wearily.

Jeffrey flew up in the air and shapeshifted back into himself. He then sat down on the ground next to Chelsea.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," Jeffrey said. "I saw them do it. They used a branding iron."

Chelsea leaned on Jeffrey's shoulder. She remained silent, so Jeffrey kept talking.

"GLaDOS said something awful when she had the robots do it, too," Jeffrey said. "She said that it was meant to be some kind of psychological treatment. I guess that she was just trying to torture you into compliance."

"I don't know what to do, Jeffrey," Chelsea said.

"About what?" Jeffrey said.

"About GLaDOS," Chelsea replied. "I hate that bitch so much right now. I just want her dead."

"That's understandable," Jeffrey said.

"But it's wrong. I know that we have to kill her in order to stop her from hurting more people, but right now, I just want to kill her because of what she did to me and my mother. I know that it's wrong to want revenge, but I can't control how I feel. I'm afraid that I will turn into a monster."

Jeffrey shook his head and said, "That will never happen."

Chelsea lifted her head up and said, "How do you know?"

"You are a strong person, Chelsea. You have been braver than any of us. You have kept your sanity and your mind intact while living as a prisoner. If you have survived her, I am convinced that you can survive anything."

"That makes sense, but Jeffrey, the only thing that has been keeping me going is God. It is weird to explain, but He has preserved me on the inside. He has protected my soul from being erased by fear."

"Then, doesn't it stand to reason that God is going to save you from the evil in your own heart, too? He has saved your soul and nothing is going to take you out of his hand."

Chelsea looked straight into his eyes.

"You're right," she said. "I guess that what I have to do is ask for forgiveness and the grace to change."

"I would also suggest confessing to a priest," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea smiled and replied, "I confessed to you. Isn't that good enough?"

"I still think it might be a good idea to confess to our preacher," Jeffrey said. "I know that it is a 'Catholic' thing to do, but it's still a good idea."

Chelsea looked down and said, "You may have a good point. I guess I should talk to other people about it."

Jeffrey got up and said, "Yes, you should go out there and think about it, and I will be in here because I really need to use the bathroom."

"I get it, Jeff," Chelsea said. "It's fine."

She walked out of the bathroom and picked up the blanket that was lying on the floor outside of the door. Chelsea sat down on her makeshift bed and thought for a long while Jeff used the bathroom. She asked God to take away her hatred of GLaDOS, but she did not really mean it. Chelsea did it because she thought that it was what she should do. She lay down on the bed wishing that she wasn't so hypocritical.

Chelsea began to daydream about the day ahead. She and her family and friends were going to kill GLaDOS once and for all. Chelsea was going to give that bitch what she deserved for destroying so many lives. She wished deep inside that she could be like Jean Valjean of the book _Les Miserables_ and be able to forgive her tormenting enemy, but she really felt like Sweeney Todd and wanted her revenge.

Chelsea sat up. She decided to pray some more. She thought that it would help her feel better if she prayed and expressed all her anger. Chelsea did. She expressed every bit of anger she felt out loud.

"I hate her, God," Chelsea said. "I hate her so much. She has treated me like a damn lab animal, and she has marked me for all of time. Wherever I go for now on, people will always want to know about this stupid scar. GLaDOS has wounded me for all of time, and I just can't let her get away with it and pretend that she has done nothing wrong. I might be crazy, but I don't really care."

Chelsea sat up and smiled.

"I'll kill her today, and then I'll be able to go home. The nightmare will be over. I'll slice and dice her into tiny bite size pieces. Then, that will be the end of that. My mother, all the dead, and I will be avenged. After today, God, it will be over."

Chelsea's smile vanished.

"God, help me. Save me from my own insanity. I don't want doing this to make me go insane."

Chelsea created a little disc and as she looked at it, she thought about how similar she was to Sweeney Todd. They were both people who had been wronged, and they both wanted revenge. Their weapons of choice were similar, too. Sweeney Todd used shaving knives to kill, but Chelsea would use her sharp discs to kill.

She looked at her disc in awe and confusion. Chelsea always loved her gifts. She hated that they had to come as a result of her mother's imprisonment in this horrible place. The world was not a perfect place. It was an image of how God could use horrible events to do wonderful things. Chelsea looked at her scar on her left shoulder. She smiled. God had to have a good purpose for that thing being there, too. She lay back on the makeshift bed and rested her eyes.

Jeffrey finally came out after about an hour. Chelsea sat up when she heard him open the door.

"Tu étais la pendant beaucoup de temps (You were there for a long time)," Chelsea said in French. Jeffrey had taken lessons from his mother who was a high school French teacher.

"Je sais ça, mais j'avais une bonne raison (I know that, but I had a good reason)," Jeffrey said.

"What reason might that be?" Chelsea said.

"I was reading the Bible and praying," Jeffrey said. "I was also getting ready."

"Those are good reasons."

"I found something that might help you."

"In the Bible, you mean?"

"Yes!" Jeffrey said quickly galloping next to her in his excitement.

"What did you find?" Chelsea said not responding to his over-enthusiasm.

"I found the verse in Philippians 4 that says 'And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.' That reminded me of you. That is why you have not and will not go insane. God is guarding your heart and your mind with peace so that you cannot go insane or have your soul erased by the terror."

Chelsea remembered something and said, "That's right. Corrie ten Boom talked about it in her autobiography. Even in the midst of the concentration camp, she never lost hope to the terror. God protected her inside, so he will protect me, too. I'm not going to go insane."

Chelsea smiled and cried a small tear of joy. She was not going to lose herself to her desire for revenge.

Jeffrey handed her the Bible that was opened to the Gospel of John and said, "I realized something else, too. You know how you're ashamed of the scar on your shoulder. Jesus had scars, too. Thomas touched them. He received them when he was nailed to the cross. Remember? So, you are just like him. You have received a scar for Him. You are blessed."

"You mean that my scar is like a badge of honor or something?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes," he said.

Those words really did help make Chelsea feel better. She realized that they hurt Jesus, too. She realized that she was not alone in the world. They tormented him, too. She like him would bear scars from torment only to be resurrected in the future as something beautiful. Chelsea realized that this scar was a blessing in a way, but she still felt terrible all the same. She knew now that this scar would not destroy her, yet she still felt like she had been violated.

"Thanks, Jeffrey! I really am grateful, but I can't just reason away my emotions like you can," Chelsea said. "I still feel like I've been raped by her. It's just going to take a while for me to get over that."

Chelsea got up, walked into the bathroom, and looked into the mirror.

"I suppose that it doesn't help that I'm dressed like a bikini model either," she said as she looked at herself.

"Oh," Jeffrey said. "I think I can help with that."

Jeffrey ran to his backpack inside the bathroom and dug inside of it for a minute. After a minute, he pulled out some navy blue boxer shorts. He then took off his sweater. Jeffrey handed both of these clothes to Chelsea.

"I know it's not much," Jeffrey said. "But it's what I have."

"Thanks, man," Chelsea said grabbing the clothes. She quickly put on the boxer shorts. However, she hesitated about putting on the sweater.

"Jeff, I can't take this," she said. "Won't you be cold?"

"Chelsea, are you forgetting that I can shapeshift into anything?" Jeffrey said as he shapeshifted into a wolf with thick fur.

Chelsea smiled.

"I'll be fine," Jeffrey said shapeshifting back into a human.

"If you say so," Chelsea said. She pulled on the sweater. It was a bit baggy but it was very comfy. Chelsea hugged herself with joy. She was so happy to be wearing real clothes again.

"Thank you, Jeffrey," she said. "You have no idea how good it feels to wear clothes again. I have been wearing nothing but bandages and hospital gowns for the past month. I actually feel like a human being again."

"You're welcome," Jeffrey said. "How about I get us something to eat?"

"Jeff…" Chelsea started to say but he took off as a peregrine falcon before she could finish. She wanted to say that there wasn't anything to eat in there, and it would be better for them to go outside to find something. Oh, well! He'd be back soon enough.

Chelsea went into the bathroom. She gathered all the stuff together and put it into the backpack so that they could leave as soon as possible. Chelsea was excited. She would get to find her friends, she would be reunited with her parents, and best of all, they would get to kill GLaDOS and go home. Chelsea picked up the packed backpack and placed it besides where she was sitting on the cushions. She found Jeffrey's water bottle and filled it to the brim. She then drank some. The cold water going down her throat tasted so good. Chelsea realized that it had been a long time since she had drank cold water, too.

Chelsea got back to the cushions and decided to try to telepathically talk to her father. She shut her eyes and started calling out to him.

After a minute, Zaki responded, "Chelsea, Chelsea, is that really you?"

"Yes, Dad," Chelsea responded with joy. "Jeffrey set me free. I'm free now. I'm all beat up, but I'm free. I can't believe that I'm saying this. How are you? What are you doing?"

"Thank, God," Zaki said with happiness. He couldn't believe that Jeffrey had pulled it off. "We're in the vaults below the facility getting people out. Hold on. Let me get your mother."

In less than a minute, Chell was back. She talked to her by putting her hand on Zaki's head.

"Oh, thank God!" Chell said with tears of joy. "Are you okay?"

"I'd be lying if I said I was, Mom," Chelsea replied. "I have struggled. I haven't been as strong as you."

"What are you talking about, Chelsea? You have been so brave. I know how you saved Albina and Brandon. I'm so proud of you."

It hurt to tell the truth.

"Mom, I almost attempted suicide."

Chell responded with a shocked and upset silence.

Chelsea continued, "Mom, I'm sorry. I was so scared, and I thought that I was just holding you guys back. I didn't want to deal with it anymore. However, God told me not do it and have hope, and I did. Now, I'm free and you don't know how happy I am to hear your voice. Please don't be upset."

"How could I be upset at you? I'm upset at her for how much she made you suffer. I wanted to spare you from her," Chell said sadly.

"Can you keep going, baby?" Zaki asked. "Do you think that you have the strength to continue?"

"Dad, I have more than enough strength to fight. There is no way in hell that I am going to let her get away with what she has done," Chelsea said.

Chell smiled to herself and replied, "That's my girl."

Chelsea looked at her left shoulder and knew that she had to tell her parents about that, too.

"Mom, she did something else to me that I know I need to tell you about," Chelsea started nervously not knowing how her Mom would react.

"Yes?" Chell replied.

"She branded my left shoulder with the Aperture Science logo."

Zaki sighed. He already knew this, too. He just hadn't told Chell because he didn't want her to be upset. He could see the shock on his wife's face.

"Why would she do that?" Chell asked.

Chelsea replied, "I think I know why. It is in the same place where my tattoo is on my right shoulder. She kept telling me that she owned me like I was her pet or something. I told her that she would never own me because I was owned by God and my tattoo was a symbol of that. I think she did it to tell me that she was staking a claim on me and owned me as much as God does. That bitch is sick. I don't know if I can ever find it in my heart to forgive her, mom."

Chell said, "You are blessed, sweetheart."

"What?" Chelsea asked.

"Remember the Beatitudes," Chell said as much to reassure herself as to reassure her daughter. "The people who are persecuted because of righteousness are given the kingdom of heaven. You were tortured because you are righteous. The kingdom of heaven is yours. I'm so proud of how brave you've been, but don't worry. Tonight, she will be dead and we will be home together along with all our new friends that we have helped escape from here."

"That is wonderful, Mom," Chelsea said.

Her mom sounded so happy at the idea of having her back. Chelsea was almost afraid of telling her what she was thinking. She did not want to hide anything from her Mom however. Chelsea did not like keeping secrets from her mother.

"Mom, there is one more thing that I wanted to tell you," Chelsea said.

"What is it, Chelsea?" Chell asked.

"What would you say if I told you that I wanted to go fight the Combines with Albina? I mean…I know how it feels to be a slave now. I know what it's like to live in fear every waking second. No one should have to live that way, Mom. I'm tired and need to rest. I know that, but after that, I was thinking about fighting the aliens. What would you say?"

"I would say that I'm proud of you and you should do it if God is calling you to it," Chell managed to get out with tears running down her cheeks.

"Thank you, Mom," Chelsea said. "Jeffrey went out to get food, but I'll let you know when we get moving and you can tell us where to go from there to find you. Okay?"

"Keep us posted, Chelsea," Zaki said.

The call ended. Chelsea fell backwards on the cushions. She knew by her mother's tone that she didn't want her to go, and she wasn't sure of what to do.

Meanwhile in the vaults, Zaki and Chell were standing apart from the small group of people that they had managed to get free plus Roberts.

Chell stood still. Zaki stood beside her.

She turned to look at him and said, "You knew about all that she was going through. Didn't you?"

Zaki slowly nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Chell yelled with a very angry look on her face. "That monster has been making our baby suffer tremendously and you didn't bother to mention it? What's the matter with you?"

"I'm sorry," Zaki said calmly. "I didn't know how to tell you. I thought you would lose your head and do something stupid. I wasn't sure if you could handle it."

Chell looked away from him and stared at the ground in disbelief.

"I can't believe how much that bitch has done to her," Chell said. "It may have upset me, but I still would have liked to know what she was doing, Zaki. I want to know what she's enduring. Don't keep things from me anymore no matter how awful. Okay?"

"Okay," Zaki agreed.

Chell continued to stare at the ground. Zaki knew what she was thinking about.

"I know you're upset about something else, too. You're upset because Chelsea wants to leave to fight the aliens," Zaki said.

"I just can't believe that she is even thinking about doing that in light of everything that she has been through," Chell said.

"Are you really? She is a tough young lady. She always has been. She is related to you after all. Chelsea also wants to see the world. She is at that age. I also think that this experience has just given her more of a desire to help others. I don't think it's a bad thing. I know how you feel though. You're worried. I'm worried, too. You don't want her to leave us or more specifically you."

Chell looked at him and said, "Zaki, you and I both know how it feels to feel trapped. We both promised after she was born that if we could help it that she would never feel that way. I think that if God calls her to go she should go. However…"

Chell's eyes were filling up with tears. Zaki put his arm around her shoulder. He understood because he was feeling exactly the same way. He feared for the safety of their daughter even though he wanted her to feel free to follow her own desires the way they had not been able to.

"However?" Zaki asked.

"I still don't want her to leave," Chell said. "That baby means the world to me."

Meanwhile, Chelsea was lying on the cushions still. She knew that her Mom wasn't happy, but she did not know what to do about it. Chelsea asked God to help her convince her mother if that was what he really wanted her to do. Then suddenly, Jeffrey as a peregrine falcon swooped back into the room with dead pigeons in his claws.

"I'm back," Jeffrey said while flying. "I found us two pigeons to eat, one for each of us."

Chelsea sat up and looked at him.

"Jeffrey, that's disgusting," she said. "You know I can't eat it raw."

"Hold on a second," Jeffrey said dropping one of the dead birds.

He swung the bird up in the air, quickly shapeshifted into a small dragon, and breathed fire upon it causing it to barbecue immediately. By the time Jeffrey caught it in his dragon claw, it was completely cooked. He smiled at the result, shapeshifted back into a human, and handed the roasted bird back to Chelsea.

"Arigato, Jeffrey-kun," Chelsea said in Japanese.

Chelsea was happy. The bird looked delicious. She had not eaten in about a week because she had been asleep. Even so, she looked like she had gained back about five pounds of weight. Be that as it may, she was still hungry. She looked over the bird in anticipation.

"I really does look good," Chelsea said. "Thanks a lot!"

Jeffrey prayed out loud.

He said, "Bless us, Oh Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through Christ, Our Lord. Amen."

"Amen," Chelsea said as Jeffrey crossed himself.

She took her first bite. It needed some spices, but besides that, it was fine. Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a falcon and started eating the dead bird. He picked it apart with his bill as he ate it. Jeffrey like Chelsea had read many books about animals and had observed animals in the wild. He learned how to act like other animals from observing them.

"I got in contact with my parents," Chelsea said in between bites.

"How are they doing?" Jeffrey asked.

"They seem to be doing alright. They are down in the vaults getting out the other test subjects."

Chelsea put her bird down for a moment and said, "I don't think my Mom is happy though."

"Why not?" Jeffrey said looking up from the bird he was ripping apart.

"I told her that I wanted to go fight the Combines and she said she was alright with it, but I know that she didn't really mean it."

"How can you tell?"

"It was the tone of her voice. She sounded like she was trying to sound happy. She doesn't want me to leave."

"What are you going to do?"

"I think that I'm still going to go. I think that God wants me to do it. I don't want anyone else to be a slave to something overwhelmingly powerful. I just don't want her to be upset about it."

Jeffrey finished eating his bird, picked up the bones with his beak, and flew it outside. Meanwhile, Chelsea was still eating her pigeon. Jeffrey came back in and shapeshifted back into a human. He walked over to Chelsea and sat next to her. Chelsea turned around so that she could face him.

"How have you been doing, Jeffrey?" Chelsea asked. "You have been alone for pretty much a month. What happened?"

"Well," Jeffrey said. "When I and the others heard that you and Brandon were kidnapped, we prepared and left about an hour later. It took a while but Sylvie and Zaki used their telepathy to find the building. We broke in, and everything was so quiet. It was actually kind of eerie. We sneaked around for a while, but she found us. GLaDOS asked us who we were and if we were related to the test subject. Zaki said that we had received your call for help and that we demanded to know where she had taken you and Brandon. She said something about being happy to see the rest of her test subject's family. Then the next thing I remember is seeing smoke bombs being set off. People either passed out or ran away. She set off some kind of knock out gas. I was drowsy from it but I shapeshifted into a dragonfly and flew into a vent. When I woke up, everyone was gone. I was scared, and I felt alone. However, I prayed and was able to keep going. I shapeshifted into a cockroach so that I wouldn't be noticeable. For days, I wandered the halls looking for people, but I couldn't find anybody. This place is huge."

"You must have been so lonely," Chelsea said.

"Not really," Jeffrey said. "I knew that God was with me, so I wasn't upset or anything like that. I did not like having to stay in the form of an animal all the time though. I wandered principally to find a good place to hide, to find food and water, and to perhaps find somebody. I couldn't communicate with anyone because Zaki was out. I eventually started going through the vents to search for food. It was a good place since there was plenty of moss to eat. As I wandered through the vents, I eventually found this place. The cameras in this test chamber were all dilapidated, but I took them out anyway and decided to make this place my home. I have liked it here. I can be a human here."

"How did you find your way around this floor?" Chelsea asked.

"I would shapeshift into an ant and leave pheromone trails so that I could find my way back here," Jeffrey said. "Eventually, I got so used to finding my way around that I didn't need them anymore. Then, I found you and shapeshifted into a cockroach to watch over you until I found an opportunity to set you free."

Chelsea looked down in sorrow for all that he had been through.

Then she looked straight at him and asked, "Jeffrey, out of anyone here, you had more ability to leave than anyone else. Why didn't you go find a way out? You could have seen your parents or breathed fresh air or something like that."

"I didn't want to leave you or anyone else," Jeffrey replied.

Chelsea smiled to herself as she walked up to the window and dropped the leftovers of the pigeon she had finished eating outside.

"You're not even a little mad at me for what I've put you through," Chelsea said. "You're godlier than I have been. I am not able to forgive her for what she has done to me."

"Look at the bright side, it is over now and I'm sure your wounds will heal with time," Jeffrey said.

"It's going to be a long time before I feel anything resembling normal," Chelsea said very sadly. "Right now, I just feel awful."

Jeffrey looked at her sadness and wanted to help. He began humming Chelsea's other favorite song from "The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time." Chelsea looked up and realized that he was humming "The Song of Storms." She looked at him in confusion. One thing the two of them had in common was that they loved music and were very moved by it. That song always usually had the ability to make her feel happy. Jeffrey stood up and pulled Chelsea up with him. He started waltzing with her to the song he was humming. He did stuff like this to pull her out of a bad mood. He wanted her to know that she was going to be alright, and she could find reasons to be happy still. Chelsea chuckled and smiled as he twirled her around and around. For the first time in about a month, she felt a small sense of joy. Chelsea was able to let go of her pain for a little while. She was able to feel happy. She regained the confidence that everything would be alright because God was with her. It was a small rush of joy that gave her life. She felt alive once again. Jeffrey knew that he had helped her when he saw her genuinely smile. Chelsea felt happy, and she gave him a warm hug. While hugging him, she noticed sunlight pouring in from a hole in the roof probably. It was like a divine sign.

"Are you ready to go?" Chelsea said.

"Yes, I just need to get my stuff together," Jeffrey said.

"I already did that. I just think we should both drink some water and then fill the bottle up all the way again one more time before we leave."

"Alright!"

Jeffrey and Chelsea each took turns drinking as much water as they wanted. Then Jeffrey went to the sink, filled the water bottle all the way to the top, and then put the water bottle in his backpack.

"Shall we?" Jeffrey said.

"Hold on," Chelsea said. "I have to contact my parents. I told them that I would talk to them again as soon as we were about to leave."

"Okay," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea telepathically was able to contact her father once again. Jeffrey touched her head so he could listen in.

"Hey, Dad," Chelsea said. "Give me the gist of what is happening. We are about to go find the others."

"Well," Zaki said. "Everyone in our group is free now. Your mother, Pastor Roberts, and I are down here while everyone else is together in another group. They were hiding in a secret room that a few robots helped them find. GLaDOS found them, so they had to run. After that, they were making their way to us. However, I told them that you two were coming, so now they are waiting outside for you. All you have to do is make your way to the roof, find them, and then come down to meet us."

"We are deep underground, but I know that we can find our way out. The others will not have to wait long," Chelsea said.

"Chelsea, listen," Chell said. "GLaDOS knows that you're free, and from what Sylvie told us, she is hell bent on finding you. You two need to protect each other. There is no telling what she'll do if she finds you."

"I will not let her catch me, Mom."

"You need to watch your surroundings. I know by experience that she is good at setting up traps. Keep your eyes open for anything that looks remotely suspicious. Avoid anything dangerous looking. Okay?"

"Protect her, Jeffrey," Zaki said sternly.

"I will, Zaki," Jeffrey said.

"I love you," Chell said. "Keep in touch, okay?"

"We will," Chelsea said.

"10-4," Zaki said.

Then their communication ceased.

Chelsea turned to Jeffrey and asked, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yep," Jeffrey said putting on his backpack. "Let's go."

Chelsea created a disc and rode it through the hole in the glass. Jeffrey shapeshifted into a dragonfly and landed on her shoulder. She stopped in the middle of the dilapidated testing chamber to look at him.

"It's dark up there. Will you use the light from your shields to guide us out or do you want me to turn into a bat?" Jeffrey asked.

Chelsea said, "There's no need for either of those things, Jeff. There's light coming from the surface.

Jeffrey noticed the light pouring in through a crack in the roof high above. He eyed it suspiciously.

"That's weird," Jeffrey said. "There hasn't ever been any light coming through before."

"Really?" Chelsea replied curiously while looking at the light more carefully. "Well, maybe the roof caved in or something. Anyways, it is a way for us to get out. Let's go!"

"Okay," Jeffrey said suspiciously as he shapeshifted into a falcon and flew up ahead.

Chelsea followed him on her disc. She daydreamed about the outdoors. Chelsea was excited about going outside again even if the weather was colder. She wanted to feel the sunlight on her skin. Chelsea could not explain it, but she felt better whenever she was in the sun.

"What month is it, Jeffrey?" Chelsea asked.

"It is the middle of October," Jeffrey replied.

"I haven't missed Halloween. Thank God!"

They both continued to fly towards the light. After a minute, Chelsea broke her silence once again. She was too excited to stay quiet for long.

"Hey, Jeffrey?" Chelsea asked. "What is that shrub that smells good around this time of year?"

"That would be the burkwood osmanthus," Jeffrey replied.

"That's right. I remember now. It's my favorite smell in the entire world. Do you think that I will smell it when we go outside?"

"You just might."

Chelsea smiled in anticipation. She was growing more and more excited. The light was growing brighter and brighter as they flew closer to it until they reached it. That was when things began to get strange. The roof had not collapsed at all. The light was coming from behind a kind of glass panel. The light was too bright for either of them to see past it. They had no idea what was making this light or what was behind this strange panel.

"What in the world?" Chelsea asked in confusion as Jeffrey perched on her shoulder. "What do you think this is?"

"It is probably just a stray light that flickered on," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea looked around.

Then she said, "If that is the case, then why is it the only one here? It could be a skylight."

"That is a pretty inefficient way to light up a facility. Isn't it?" Jeffrey said.

"You're right," Chelsea said. "What could it be for then? This is really weird."

"I'm not sure, but I think we should move on," Jeffrey replied cautiously as he took off and flew in the air again.

"This could be a way out."

"Remember what your mom said, Chelsea? She said that anything that looks weird or suspicious is probably a trap. We should move on. I have lived down here for weeks and have never seen this light before. You have to admit that that is suspicious."

Chelsea realized that he was right. Despite how good the light felt to her skin desperate for real light, she flew to the left to get out of it. Chelsea was disappointed. She really hoped to be outside sooner. She was also scared. If that was a trap, then could they have tripped it already? Her heart started beating faster.

"What do we do now?" Chelsea asked.

"We find another way out," Jeffrey replied.

However, they suddenly heard a noise behind them. It was the sound of panels. They flipped around so that the white sides were facing Jeffrey and Chelsea. The panels that were on all four sides of them did the same thing. Chelsea flew to the center of the room just below the light.

"What the hell?" Chelsea asked.

"What is happening?" Jeffrey asked.

The light above them went off so they were in complete darkness except for the glow of Chelsea's disc.

"Shit," Chelsea said in fear. "You were right."

Chelsea heard the sound of panels moving and instinctually dissolved her shield so that she fell down in order to avoid them. Jeffrey shapeshifted into a squirrel and fell on top of her. Chelsea held him against her. After hearing the sound of the panels slamming together, Chelsea created a shield around her hands. The shield gave off enough light so that she could see above. The panels had come together to form a box that was obviously meant to entrap Chelsea. She looked around and noticed that the other panels on the chambers were in the process of doing the same thing around her. Chelsea threw Jeffrey down behind her, and she put up large discs on either side of her. These discs lit up the surrounding area and stopped the panels from closing into a box and allowed her to fall through. Jeffrey shapeshifted into a dragonfly again and flew on top of her shoulders.

"What are you doing?" he yelled at her.

"What do you mean? I am trying to keep us alive," Chelsea replied.

"Chelsea, if you hold the panels apart like that, then they will slam together and fall on top of us once you let them go."

Chelsea noticed the mechanical noises and the gears grinding against her shield and realized he was right.

"Crap," she said.

Then an idea came to her like a struck of lightning.

Chelsea created a disc under her and flew to the left side of the wall behind the panels where she could see faintly all the gears that were moving them.

"Jeffrey, can you see in the dark?" Chelsea asked.

"I can now," Jeffrey said having shapeshifted into a cat.

"Am I behind the panels?"

"Yes?"

"Good!"

Chelsea created two large discs and made them large and able to spin extra quickly. She aimed one above her and one below her. Together, they broke all the panels off of the left side of the wall. As Chelsea's eyes finally started adjusting to the dark, she smiled in satisfaction in hearing them crash to the ground.

"Great job, Chelsea!" Jeffrey said.

"Yes," Chelsea yelled.

The danger was not over yet however. Chelsea knew that and continued flying towards the surface holding a huge shield over the panels on the other side of the wall so that GLaDOS could not use them. Jeffrey shapeshifted into a bat and flew around her. He used his echolocation.

"I think I found a vent for us to crawl through," Jeffrey said.

"Where's the vent?" Chelsea yelled.

"Over here," Jeffrey yelled from further up.

There was a vent shaft hanging straight down from the ceiling. Chelsea's eyes were adjusted enough to the dark that she could get to him. She quickly broke off the vent grating and tossed it down.

"Grab onto me, Jeff," Chelsea said dissolving her shield.

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a spider monkey and wrapped his arms around her neck. She flew into the vent and followed where it went. Chelsea went up and flew to the left. She had to curl up into a ball as she flew around because the space was tight. Jeffrey shapeshifted into a lizard so he could rest on her ear. The shields holding back the other panels dissolved when Chelsea went into the vent, so they crashed into the other side of the wall.

"You see why I can't forgive her, God," Chelsea prayed in her mind as she heard them fall through the vents. "She is a monster."

Chelsea reached the end of the vent where she found another grating that opened to another room. She cut the grating open and flew out. Chelsea stood up and looked around as Jeffrey peaked out from over her ear. The room was an open space. It was lit by artificial lights or sun lights that were hanging from the ceiling. Chelsea could not tell because she could not see where the ceiling was since the room was so large. She looked around and did not see anything that looked dangerous. There were test chamber boxes connected by elevators and vacuum tubes twisting all around. However, there was no sign of GLaDOS. Chelsea sighed with relief and laughed to herself. Jeffrey laughed with her. They were so relieved to be free. Chelsea flew around and found a metal walkway that was set up against the white moon walls. There was an exit door right next to it. She landed on it and sat down. They both stopped to catch their breath. They were both breathing hard from all the fighting.

"I cannot believe I just did that," Chelsea said breathing hard. "I can't believe I just broke all the panels off the wall. I didn't know I could do that."

"Yeah," Jeffrey said. "That was some quick thinking. Great job!"

"I couldn't have done it without you," Chelsea said smiling. "Your eye for detail is amazing. We make a good team in videogames and in real life."

After a moment of silence, Chelsea continued.

"It felt amazing in another way, too," she said. "I felt like I was using my power how it was meant to be used all along. I felt alive. You know what I mean? I want to keep doing this. I guess that maybe I am supposed to fight after all."

"Maybe," Jeffrey said.

"Would you come with me, Jeff? We make a good team."

"Well…"

Before Jeffrey could reply, a portal appeared behind Chelsea's back causing her to fall backwards. Before she had time to react, a doctor robot started to inject something into a vein in her leg while another doctor robot held a cold, wet rag over her mouth and nose. Jeffrey quickly shapeshifted into a dragonfly, moved under Chelsea, and shapeshifted into a rhinoceros lifting her up on his back and knocking the doctor robots off of her. She threw the rag and the half-empty syringe off of her. Chelsea was drowsy and her legs were going numb, but she was still conscious enough to fight. Jeffrey rammed the doctor robots over the railing and into the abyss below. He turned around and ran back through the portal. Jeffrey then ran towards the door of the room and used his horn to break down the door.

As he was working, he asked, "Chelsea, are you alright? What did they do to you?"

"I can't feel my legs," Chelsea said.

"Crap," Jeffrey said. "How did they find us?"

"It actually wasn't that hard," they both heard GLaDOS say.

Chelsea felt her heart both stop and burn with an angry fire. She looked up and saw the camera right above the door.

"You fell for the trap," GLaDOS continued. "We just had to lure you out of hiding with lights so we could find an opportunity to catch you. I have to hand it to you though. You have not made it easy. What you did to the panels was impressive. Your ability to hide from me was impressive, too. My doctor robots have had such a hard time finding you even though we have searched all over the facility, princess. Now, I know why. Your other boyfriend is a shapeshifter. Simply amazing! Anyways, I have missed you so much. I've been worried sick. How have you been? Have you been feeling better? Why don't you come back with one of my doctor robots? I'll make sure that you two are treated well. I will let you stay together as mates. What do you say?"

"I say that you really need to quit assuming that I am romantically involved with all my male friends," Chelsea said.

Chelsea then used a disc to cut off the camera on the wall. Jeffrey broke down the door and kept running down the hall with her on his back. Chelsea took off the sweater and started tying it around Jeffrey's neck.

"You need to be careful, Jeff," Chelsea said. "Rhinos have bad eyesight, you know."

"Chelsea, what are you doing?" he asked.

"I am giving myself something to hold onto," she said. "Haven't you ever seen those videos of the cowboys riding bulls? There is a strap they hold onto."

Chelsea tied the sleeves of the sweater into a knot. She held onto it with her left hand as Jeffrey continued to run while destroying whatever cameras she saw with discs from her right hand.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked over the intercom. "Do you really think that I am letting you get away again?"

Chelsea didn't say a word. Jeffrey found a door that led to some stairs. He pried it open with his horn, shapeshifted into a pterodactyl, and flew up the stairs.

"Good job, Jeff," Chelsea said. "We just need to keep finding either passageways that go up or a window."

"That sounds good," Jeff said.

"Hey, Jeff!"

"Yes!"

"Even if we're in a life threatening situation, I just wanted to let you know that this is really cool. Riding a pterodactyl and a rhino are things that not everyone has done. We should do this more often."

Jeffrey smiled to himself and said, "That's good. You're finding a silver lining in all this."

"I suppose," Chelsea said.

Jeffrey flew several hundred levels past the bullets of turrets in open doorways to the top of the stairs. Chelsea was tired but managed to block them all with her shield.

"How big is this place?" Jeffrey said in disbelief.

Chelsea felt like she was half-asleep, but she managed to hold on. She nodded off several times. She laid down on top of his neck and wrapped her arms around him to support herself.

"Are you alright?" Jeffrey asked her.

"We need to get to Roscoe," Chelsea said drowsily. "He can reverse the effects of whatever she did to me."

"Okay, Chelsea! Just hang on. We'll find a way out."

"Okay," Chelsea said forcing herself to sit up.

Jeffrey saw the top of the stairs, and he felt overjoyed. When he got there however, the door opened. On the other side of the door was a turret.

"I see you," the turret said as he began firing bullets.

Chelsea immediately put up a shield around them.

"Move it, Jeff," Chelsea yelled.

As the turret continued to fire bullets, Jeffrey flew over the turret and shapeshifted into an appaloosa stallion accidentally knocking him over in the process. The turret fell on his side and continued firing.

"I don't hate you," the turret said as he shut down.

Meanwhile Jeffrey kept running while Chelsea sat up and maintained her shield.

"All we need to do is find more stairs or a window," Chelsea said. "That shouldn't be too hard."

"Just hold onto that sweater," Jeffrey said. "And don't go to sleep."

He ran around the corner and there were doctor robots with syringes. Chelsea used her discs to cut them in half as Jeffrey ran through them. They kept coming but she kept cutting them down while Jeffrey kept running. She still felt drowsy and the bottom half of her body was still numb, so she was struggling to hang on. Chelsea wrapped her arms around Jeffrey's neck in exhaustion.

"Hang on, Chelsea," Jeffrey said. "We're close to an exit. I can feel it."

Chelsea looked up as they ran down the hallway. They passed another long hallway with offices on either side. Chelsea smiled with joy. At the end of that hallway was a window.

"Jeffrey, turn around," Chelsea yelled. "I saw a window!"

Jeffrey turned around as quickly as a horse possibly could and went the other way.

"Where?" Jeffrey asked.

"There," Chelsea yelled pointing down the hallway with the window at the end.

Jeffrey started running down the hallway.

"I'm going to break the glass, Jeff," Chelsea said. "When I do, you need to shapeshift into a pterodactyl again, so we can fly out. Got it?"

"Got it," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea sat up, got her disc ready, and prepared to fire.

"This is it, man," Chelsea said excitedly. "We're going to be free!"

Chelsea had spoken too soon. As Jeffrey was running forward, doctor robots burst through a door on the left in front of them and shot Jeffrey with tranquilizer darts from a gun causing him to fall before she even had time to react. Chelsea put a shield around them. After he landed on the ground, Chelsea dragged herself off of him and pulled the dart out of his body. Unfortunately, it was too late. It was already taking effect.

"Jeffrey?" Chelsea asked as she held up his head.

"Don't worry," he whispered with a weary smile. "I'm not going to leave you."

In an act of quick thinking, Jeffrey shapeshifted into a dragonfly, landed on Chelsea's necklace, pushed two beads apart, wrapped himself around the string, and turned into a bead before blacking out. Fortunately for them, Chelsea's back was turned to the camera at the end of the hall and to the robots so they could not see what happened. They just saw him vanish. Unfortunately for Chelsea, she was now stranded and could not move her legs. She put a flying disc under her to fly on and hovered off the ground. Chelsea turned around and noticed that all the robots were standing in front of the window. She had to get out fast.

"Where did your stallion go, princess?" GLaDOS asked.

"Can't say I know," Chelsea replied.

"You can't move your legs. Can you?" She had noticed that she wasn't standing up.

Chelsea responded with silence. She turned around briefly to see a bunch of doctor robots come up behind her.

"That is a truly unfortunate circumstance considering the fact that you are now surrounded," GLaDOS said. "If I were you, I would recommend surrendering."

"Too bad I'm not you," Chelsea replied rebelliously. "Bring it, you bitch!"

"As you wish, princess," GLaDOS replied. "Get her, doctors."

Chelsea flew upwards and used her discs to cut all the robots around her that she could. They were the only things standing between her and her escape. She was not going to let them get in the way. Chelsea did pretty well considering that she lost the ability to move her legs. She cut through robot after robot after robot but they just kept coming. Chelsea finally gave up and flew just above their reach. It was so close. Freedom was less than thirty feet away. However, Chelsea started coughing and losing consciousness even faster. She realized that there was some kind of gas in the air. Chelsea held her hand over her mouth but it did no good. She flew faster and faster. She threw her disc through the window breaking it open so she could fly out. The window was open and real sunlight was pouring in. The cold October wind was blowing into the hallway. Chelsea smiled in satisfaction. She could feel the adrenaline of joy pumping through her chest.

However, GLaDOS started to shut the open space with a metal security shutter. Chelsea cast a shield between the shutter and the window sill holding it open until she got there. Once Chelsea flew there, she wanted to squeeze through but the space was small. Chelsea could just get her arm through. She dissolved the shield around her body so that it was no longer in front of her but only behind her. Chelsea fought against the gas for consciousness as she attempted to push open the shutter with her shield. GLaDOS pushed the shutter down harder. The gas caused Chelsea to drift for a second causing her shield under the window to dissolve and allowing the shutter to slam shut. Chelsea's heart sank as she saw the last bit of sunlight disappear.

"No," she said in despair with tears in her eyes.

Chelsea tried hacking at it, but she was too tired. Chelsea's disc dissolved. She collapsed to the ground and continued coughing.

"You don't need to be afraid," GLaDOS said comfortingly. "I am not using this gas to kill you. All it will do to you is make you fall asleep. You should be excited. You're getting treated with something special when you wake up. Just fall asleep already. You must be tired. In the past 24 hours, you have escaped the lab and killed many robots. I can imagine that that has taken a lot out of you. Don't you want to sleep?"

"Screw you," Chelsea yelled in frustration. "I have been asleep for the past month. I don't want to sleep anymore!"

"You have to be the most unappreciative subject that I have ever worked with," GLaDOS said. "My other subjects have died for a chance to rest like this."

Chelsea was frightened and very angry. However in the midst of her suffering, something occurred to her.

"They are about to take me away to a hell I don't want to be in. I wonder if this is how Caroline felt when they took her to put her in that machine," Chelsea thought to herself.

"It is," the voice from above said to her. "That is why she is the way she is, because she refused to forgive. She was consumed by her own bitterness. You are in danger of becoming like her."

Chelsea thought about GLaDOS and realized that He was right. Anyone could become a monster like GLaDOS. God was the only one preventing Chelsea from doing that. He directed her away from that path. Chelsea realized that in order to not go insane from anger and bitterness she would need to ask God to help her forgive the way Jesus did. He forgave his enemies as they watched him die. She needed to do the same thing.

"God, I don't want to be like her," Chelsea prayed in her head. "Help me to forgive her even if it hurts."

"Are you asleep yet?" GLaDOS asked impatiently.

"GLADOS," Chelsea said out loud. "I forgive you."

"What?" GLaDOS asked confused.

"I said that I forgive you," Chelsea said as she finally drifted off to sleep.

Chelsea's shield dissolved, and the doctor robots picked her up to carry her to her room.

Meanwhile, GLaDOS hung in her chamber confused and trying to comprehend Chelsea's words that she had clearly heard but barely understood.


	17. Chapter 17

It wasn't long before Zaki and Chell found out. Chell was upset and scared. She was afraid for her daughter's life. Zaki and Chell told the others everything about what Chelsea had told them and how in spite of their best efforts, both Jeffery and Chelsea were caught. The others were upset too. They thought of what to do as they stood in the morning sun on the roof.

"I should have gone to help them," Brandon said looking at the ground. "This is all my fault."

"Brandon, this is not the time to get upset," Roscoe said putting a hand on his son's left shoulder. "This is the time for figuring out how in the hell we are going to save them."

Sylvie had an idea and worried about how everyone would react to it, but eventually she decided that she didn't care. They had to save Chelsea before GLaDOS carried out her torture on her.

Sylvie said, "I think we need to split up."

Everyone looked up and stared at her making her feel uncomfortable. She hated being the center of attention of a large group. Nevertheless, she continued.

"One group should go help the people escape from downstairs and another group should go after Chelsea and Jeffrey," Sylvie said.

"But why?" Hugo asked clearly not a fan of her plan.

"The people downstairs need help, but Chelsea and Jeff do, too," Sylvie said. "We can get both things done at the same time if we are separate. I will be the one going after Chelsea. I am the only one here who knows the layout of the place enough to find them."

"Where do we go?" a voice behind her asked. It was Alpha standing next to Atlas and P-Body.

After thinking for a second, Sylvie said, "You three should come with me. If I'm not around, something bad could happen to you and you could die if I'm not there to repair you. You three are safer with me than with anyone else."

"We will help, too," Alpha said pulling out his guns.

Atlas and P-Body nodded their heads vigorously.

"You will be too slow," Kayla chimed in while flying over to her. "You know how big this facility is? You know how heavy these robots are? They will be too cumbersome to move around quickly. There is no way you can move them around quick and quietly by yourself especially if you have to climb somewhere. I'll go with you, too."

Atlas and P-Body crossed their arms and huffed clearly offended by what Kayla said.

"I'm sorry, guys," Kayla said to them. "But it's true."

"But, Kayla," Albina said worried.

Roscoe put his hand up to signal for Albina to listen to her.

Kayla turned towards Albina and said, "If she is going to pull this off, she is going to need a fast mode of transportation to move around quietly and quickly. I am the only one here who can provide that. I can help us escape. Besides that, I'm also pretty good at breaking things apart. I can defend her, too."

Albina smiled to herself and crossed her arms. She knew that Kayla was right. She was the only one who could get them around quickly because of her telekinesis. Albina was proud of how smart, mature, and yet assertive Kayla was being. This experience had changed her for the better. She walked toward Kayla.

"You're right, Kayla," Albina said. "You are the only one who can transport everyone quickly. Sylvie needs you, and the mission will not be successful unless you go with her."

Kayla smiled happily.

"However," Albina said stopping in front of her. "As strong and fast as your telekinesis is, I don't think you will be completely capable of defending those four by yourself. That is why I am going, too."

"Fine by me," Kayla said.

"Me, too," Sylvie said.

"Hooray," Alpha said jumping in the air.

"Besides, Chelsea helped me escape and I promised her that I would find her. I need to be there to do that," said Albina.

Roscoe smiled at their plan. Brandon and Hugo however were not convinced.

"Sylvie," Hugo said. "Why can't we go with you? We could also help. I don't like this. I don't want to leave you alone."

"I don't either," Brandon said. "I owe Chelsea, too."

Sylvie did not buckle under the pressure even though she felt nervous.

"You heard what I said," Sylvie said. "You guys are needed down there. Besides, I will not be alone."

"We will protect her," Alpha said.

"Maybe, but…" Hugo said.

"Hugo," Albina said. "She is right. You can light up the dark and reach the high places, Brandon can get people out of the cryogenic chambers, and Roscoe can heal anyone who is hurt. You three are needed down there."

Hugo looked down sad realizing that she was right. Albina understanding his emotions wrapped her arms around him in a cold hug.

"I know that you don't want to be without her, but you really need to trust her judgment and let her do her own thing once in a while," Albina whispered in his ear. "You will kill her with your dependence otherwise. You have to be willing to let her go if you really love her."

Hugo realized that she was right.

It's not that he did not think Sylvie was capable of fighting. It's just that he was afraid of not being there to protect her. Hugo did not want to lose the woman he wanted to share his life with. However, he realized he was being too protective. He could not prevent anything bad from happening to her for the rest of her life. That was impossible. That would also stop her from living her life. Sylvie needed to really live and use her gifts for God even if it meant risks or maybe even death. Hugo had to be willing to give up his grip on his fiancée's life. She had to be free to leave his sight and do what she needed to do. Hugo did not want his love to be controlling. He did not want Sylvie to feel controlled and worshipped like an idol. He wanted her to be happy and free. It took his younger sister to make him realize that. Hugo would let Sylvie take this risk. He asked God to forgive him and give him the courage to let her go even if it meant she might die like his father.

"You're right, Albina," Hugo whispered. "I'm sorry. Just please protect her."

"I will," Albina said.

Albina let go, and Hugo walked over to Sylvie.

"Sylvie, I'm sorry for being overprotective," Hugo said holding her hands with tears in the corners of his eyes. "I just don't want to lose you. Your plan is brilliant. I will go along with it, but please don't let yourself get killed. We have too much life left to live together."

"You don't have to worry about that, mon amour," Sylvie said. "I will be fine. I won't let that monster kill me. Bon courage!"

"Bon courage," Hugo said.

She kissed him on his hair, and they hugged one more time. Everyone was alright with the plan now except for Brandon.

"You can't convince me," Brandon said. "I am not leaving Chelsea alone. It's my fault she's here in the first place."

"But they need you down there," Sylvie said letting go of Hugo. "You know that. Those two are going to need you to even get down to the vaults in the first place."

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked.

"Follow me," Sylvie said.

Sylvie first telepathically made sure that she disabled any stray security cameras that might be spying on them and then walked forward. They followed Sylvie as she walked on the roof for a while until she was in the exact center. She was following the mental map that she had downloaded into her brain. Then she stopped because she knew exactly where she was.

"You have to phase through right here," Sylvie said.

"Why?" Brandon asked.

"If you phase through right here, the walkway of the vaults is exactly below you. You just have to keep phasing through the other floors until you reach it. That is the fastest way to get down there, and your Dad and Hugo cannot do it without you, Brandon. Besides, you know that Chelsea would kill you for not helping them out."

Brandon thought of Chelsea and smiled.

"She totally would," Brandon said.

"Help us out, son," Roscoe said sternly. "Please!"

Reluctantly, Brandon looked up and said, "I'll do it, but as soon as we lead everyone outside, I'm coming straight after you whether Chelsea would want me to or not. Is that understood?"

"Whatever, dude," Kayla said. "Quit being so overdramatic. We'll be fine."

The others smiled in approval. They needed Kayla around for times like this. She was good at easing the tension.

"Now, if all objections are done, I'm ready to go," Kayla said. "Let's go!"

Sylvie yelled, "Everyone hold hands. The six of us need to phase through with you until we get to the first floor beneath the ceiling. Then you guys can keep going."

Everyone obeyed Sylvie. The robots and everyone else except Alpha who was being held by Albina held hands. Sylvie telepathically made sure that the security cameras on that floor were disabled, and they phased through to the first floor underneath the ceiling.

"I need to stand here," Brandon asked Sylvie.

"Actually," she said pushing him over a few meters. "You need to stand here."

"Thanks," he said. "Be careful out there and please save them. I couldn't live with myself if Chelsea died."

"Don't worry," Sylvie said. "I know what I am doing."

Next she turned to Hugo who hugged her and said, "Revenez à moi, s'il vous plait. Je sais que tu es capable, mais j'ai peur. Je ne veux pas perdre la personne la plus importante dans ma vie. (Come back to me, please. I know that you are capable, but I'm scared. I don't want to lose the most important person in my life.)"

Sylvie kissed his gloved hands, looked into his eyes, and said, "Je reviendrai. N'inquiète pas. Dieu est avec nous. Tu dois croire ça. Ça ira. (I will return. Don't worry. God is with us. You have to believe that. It will be alright.)"

"D'accord (okay)!" Hugo said.

The pair hugged again and then parted. After delivering a last farewell hug to Albina, Hugo walked over to Brandon and grabbed his hand. Meanwhile, Roscoe was talking to Kayla and Albina.

Roscoe hugged Kayla and said, "I'm so proud of you. You've been so mature and so smart. Your grandfather and parents would be proud. I just need you to keep it up now. What you're about to do now is more dangerous than ever. I need you to stay calm and be brave no matter what happens, okay?"

"Thank you so much, Roscoe," Kayla said. "I know I can do it."

Roscoe let go of Kayla and turned to Albina.

"Whatever doubts you have about her, Albina," Roscoe said. "You need to trust her and encourage her now more than ever because you will have to rely on her to see this mission through. Kayla is tough and smart. She just gets scared and loses control sometimes. Treat her like the capable person she is and try not to be too hard on her down there unless she really needs you to be. Okay? She will only let you down if she doesn't have the confidence to keep going."

"You don't have to worry about me, Roscoe," Albina said. "I won't discourage her. I know now that she's able to be smart and tough. I can trust her to see us through."

"Kayla is right here and can hear everything that you two are saying," Kayla said.

Albina and Roscoe smiled at each other.

"Take care of each other," Roscoe said as he turned around and walked to where Brandon and Hugo were.

"Don't worry, Roscoe," Kayla said. "I'll make sure that Albina gets back safely."

"I know you will."

"Oh, and Roscoe?"

"Yes," Roscoe said turning to look at Kayla once again.

"Tell my grandpa that I'm doing alright," said Kayla. "I know that he's probably worried. Tell Aunt C and Zaki that, too."

"Will do," Roscoe said as he held Brandon and Hugo's hands.

"So, I just need to phase through floors until I reach the vaults?" Brandon asked.

"Yes, it should be 80 floors from this point," Sylvie said. "Good luck!"

"Goodbye, guys!" Hugo said. "Take care! Be careful, ladies!"

"Goodbye," Alpha said.

With that, the three men phased through the floor and kept going. The ladies and robots were alone once again.

"Yeah!" Kayla said telekinetically pulling Sylvie and Albina close to her in a hug sort of thing. "Looks like it's the three of us against the world once again, ladies. We're the three musketeers."

"And us?" Alpha asked as the two other robots nodded.

"I suppose that you weirdoes can come, too."

Atlas and P-Body made beeps of disapproval.

"I was just joking," Kayla said telekinetically pulling them close, too. "You three are throwing away the only lives that you have ever known just to help us. You are part of our family now, too. If it weren't for you guys, we would all be dead by now. Thank you!"

The three robots were touched by her kind words. Atlas wrapped his arms around Kayla in a hug. The others stepped back and watched in amazement. P-Body was happy. It took a lot for Atlas to show affection to anybody. He only ever hugged him. Kayla on her end was surprised.

"Wow, dude," Kayla said. "I never knew you were a hugger."

"Anyways," Albina said. "We need to get going. Sylvie, where do we go?"

"I have no idea where GLaDOS has taken Chelsea or Jeffrey," Sylvie said. "There are a number of places where they could be. However, I think I know where they will be."

Kayla slipped out of Atlas's arms. She saw some potatoes growing along the walls and decided to pick some for them to eat.

"Where will they be?" Albina said.

"My guess is the testing chambers," Sylvie said. "If we get down there, we can intercept Chelsea while she's testing. Fortunately for us since you have destroyed so many of the chambers, we will not have to search through many. Jeffrey will probably be close by, so we will most likely find them at the same time."

Albina asked, "How do we get down there?"

P-Body walked to the front next to Sylvie.

"P-Body and I will lead the way," Sylvie said. "We both have the maps to this place imprinted into our brains. We know how to get down there."

"Alright, let's go," Albina said.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kayla loading some things into her backpack. She turned to look at her.

"Kayla, what are you doing?" Albina asked.

"I found some potatoes growing along the wall," Kayla said as she put her backpack back on her back. "I thought that I should get them in case we get hungry."

"Not a bad idea," Albina said.

"Albina," Alpha said. "Where should I go? I want to protect everybody."

"You should stand up front next to Sylvie and P-Body," Albina said leaning down and talking to him. "That way, you can take on anyone who attacks up head on. The rest of us will stand right behind them in case anyone comes from behind and will come up if you need backup. Okay?"

"Okay!" Alpha said walking in front of Sylvie and P-Body.

Atlas walked up behind Sylvie and tapped her on the shoulder. Sylvie read his mind and knew what he was thinking. He wanted to know how he could help.

"Keep your eyes open for trouble," Sylvie said. "We need as many eyes watching for danger as possible. Okay?"

Atlas nodded his head.

"Now if everyone is ready," Albina said. "Let's move out. Lead the way, Sylvie. Find the most direct route possible."

"You got it," Sylvie said.

Sylvie, P-Body, and Alpha led the way down the hallway with Atlas and Kayla immediately behind them and Albina flying in the rear.

Meanwhile, Brandon held the hands of his father and Hugo while holding his portal gun under his arm. The trio phased through floor after floor after floor until finally Brandon phased through the final floor and saw the grating of the vaults beneath him. He knew they had arrived. Pastor Roberts saw them first and pointed them out. Hugo let go of Brandon's hand and flew down as a ball of fire to the amazement of all the freed test subjects beneath him. Brandon let of his Dad's hand and held on to the portal gun in his hands. He and his father landed on their feet on the walkway of the vault. Brandon walked towards the group right away while his father took a second to regenerate his legs. Hugo landed right next to him and turned his flames off. Chell ran straight to them and wrapped her arms around them. Zaki followed behind her.

"My boys," Chell said. "I'm so glad you're safe."

She let go of them and said, "Where are the others?"

"Sylvie, Albina, Kayla, and the three robots are going after Chelsea and Jeffrey," Brandon said. "They will join us as soon as they save them."

"Sylvie thought that it would be better if the group separated," Hugo said. "She told us to come down here and help you guys out, so we could do two things at once."

"Sylvie is wise," Chell said looking down in worry.

"Chell," Hugo said.

"Yes?" Chell said looking up.

"Sylvie and I are engaged. I just thought that you would like to know that. Chelsea will be the maid of honor," Hugo said.

Chell smiled and said, "Chelsea will love that."

"Hey," Roscoe said. "Kayla wanted me to tell you that she is doing alright. You two would be proud of how mature she's been. She is growing up a lot."

Chell smiled sadly and walked away from the group. Zaki came up behind her and gave her a hug while resting his head on her right shoulder. He knew how worried she was and what exactly she was thinking.

"It will be over soon, love," Zaki said.

He kissed the right side of her face and continued, "You need to trust God, babe. Everything is going to be alright. Soon, our curse will be lifted."

Chell nodded while putting her right hand on his face and said, "I know, dear. I just need to pray for the grace to believe it."

"I'll pray, too," Zaki said.

The two exchanged a kiss and walked back to the group. They had been making plans. Roscoe began medically examining all the people who had been released. Zaki sat next to him and talked quietly about how things were going. Meanwhile, Chell walked to Hugo and Brandon.

"What is going on?" Chell asked. "What are you going to do?"

"I am going to fly around the vaults," Hugo said. "I will find any people that we may have forgotten. Brandon will follow me on foot, and I will fly him up to phase people out."

"You two are working together?" Chell said in disbelief knowing their history. "God really is a miracleworker."

Hugo and Brandon smiled at each other for a second.

Brandon rested his right arm on Hugo's left shoulder and said, "Yeah, we're friends now. We have settled our differences. Isn't that right, Hugo?"

"Yes, it is," Hugo said then and then continued as he looked at Brandon's arm on his shoulder. "I thought I told you not to touch me."

"Sorry, man," Bradon said quickly moving his arm.

"They're a work in progress," Roscoe said.

"Anyways, your plan is good," Zaki said. "We will follow behind you."

Chell did not hear the rest of the conversation after that. Her mind was focused on the object that she noticed Brandon was carrying in his left arm. It was a portal gun. Many memories started coming back to her as she stared at it.

"Brandon, where did you get that?" Chell asked gesturing to his portal gun.

"I got it when I was testing," Brandon said. "I took it with me when I escaped."

"May I have it?"

"Of course, Chell, you know how to use it better than I do anyhow."

Brandon handed Chell the portal gun, and she examined it silently as she held it in her hands. She had not seen this device in years, but she still knew exactly how it worked. Chell smiled. She had her weapon back. Chell looked down at her shoes. Chelsea had taken her long fall boots the day she was abducted. She and her daughter had the same shoe size. The shoes she had on now were just tennis shoes. Chell looked at the group of people that Roscoe was in the process of examining. Apparently, one of them had complained about something wrong with her feet and had taken off her long fall boots so that Roscoe could heal her feet. Chell took off her shoes, picked them up, and walked over to her. She tapped her shoulder.

"Yes?" the red-haired woman asked.

"Hey," Chell asked nervously. "This might be a weird question, but what shoe size are you?"

"I'm a size nine," she said confused.

"That is perfect," Chell said smiling. "Would you please switch shoes with me? Mine would be more comfortable for you. I just really want those shoes."

"Um, okay," the woman said. "Sure! I don't mind. Your shoes look more comfortable though. Are you really sure that you want these?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, whatever. Here you go."

Chell picked up the shoes.

"Thank you," Chell said as she walked away.

The woman took Chell's shoes and looked at her oddly. Chell didn't care. She sat on the ground and put the shoes on. Zaki watched the scene unfold. He watched Chell put the shoes on and walk around in them. Chell put the portal gun on over her right hand and walked away from the group along the walkway. Zaki followed close behind her without saying a word. Chell walked around the corner and turned left. She looked around and then looked over the edge of the railing and saw a fallen panel of moon rock that was lying across the dilapidated walkway below then she looked up to the ceiling and noticed that the ceiling was made from moon rock. Chell bent over the edge of the walkway's railing and shot a blue portal onto the panel below. Then she looked up and shot an orange portal directly above her. Chell climbed over the railing until she was hanging onto the other side.

"Chell, what are you doing?" Zaki yelled even though he knew what she was going to do.

Chell jumped off the walkway.

"Chell!" Zaki yelled as he ran over to where she had jumped off.

He looked down and saw her disappear into the portal. A few seconds later, Zaki heard a loud thud behind him on the walkway. He turned around and saw Chell standing upright and grinning from ear to ear. She had gone through the portals and landed right where she intended to just like when she was a test subject. Her test run was a success.

"Chell?" Zaki asked. "Are you alright?"

"Don't worry, love," Chell said. "I'm feeling fantastic."


	18. Chapter 18

GLaDOS watched Chelsea as she slept in the bed of the room that she had prepared just for her. There was so much more to this human than she had previously thought. She looked like any other human, but she was different for more reasons than her obvious mutated powers. GLaDOS was really confused by her behavior. She said that she had forgiven her but what could she have possibly meant by that? Did she really mean what she said? No one had ever spoken those words to her before. GLaDOS knew what forgiveness meant. According to her internal dictionary, it was the voluntary and intentional process by which a victim voluntarily and intentionally lets go of their negative attitudes towards their offenders and increasingly wishes their offenders well with the possible intention of restoring a relationship with them. However, these were only words. They explained what had happened while at the same time not doing the word justice. The words did not explain why a human decided to undergo this process. GLaDOS knew that it usually happened after the offender apologized, but she had done no such thing. So, why did Chelsea forgive her? What reason could she have?

GLaDOS turned away in annoyance. These were only the words of a delusional human. Why should she care? Why should they bother her? Did this human have the ability to give off pheromones to influence people? GLaDOS had never been this disturbed by the words of anybody. She considered herself superior to humans and had thus considered their words trivial. However when this human opened her mouth, GLaDOS was left disturbed as a result. Why was this insane freak so different? Chelsea's friends had said Christian things, but she was not disturbed by them. They threatened that she would die unless she repented. GLaDOS had heard multiple curses such as that before. Humans would curse others to give them courage to face their supposed enemies or to intimidate their enemies into giving up. The motivation behind their words was obvious. Whenever Chelsea explained her theological beliefs, GLaDOS had tried to interpret it the same way, just another way for the human to give herself courage. GLaDOS may have been disturbed in the moment. She may have even admired her conviction and courage for what Chelsea said, but she quickly pushed off the words like she did the words of anyone else even though she was disturbed by her words. However, this most recent outburst was unbearably disturbing because GLaDOS could find no reason behind it. Chelsea had nothing to gain from telling GLaDOS that she was forgiven. If anything, it was humiliating to her because she had been keeping up an image of being strong. She possibly may have been trying to give herself a peace of mind but she was captured. What peace did she think that she could have with GLaDOS? Was it some kind of religious obligation? Was it some kind of trick? Why did she do it? GLaDOS wished that she could brush off the words like she did the others, but she found it impossible. GLaDOS thought and thought about Chelsea's words to understand what she meant by them. Finally, GLaDOS thought of another possibility that was almost too crazy to even consider from a cynical point a view. Chelsea could have been doing it out of a desire to show genuine, Christian love.

GLaDOS turned to look back at Chelsea who was starting to stir on the monitor. Could that really be her reasoning? GLaDOS was taken aback and startled by the idea yet she pushed her cynicism forward.

"How ridiculous," GLaDOS said to herself. "Showing love? That is just ludicrous."

Chelsea moved around in her sleep some more.

"Maybe she's a saint," GLaDOS said. "I've never heard of a saint having a tattoo."

Chelsea opened her eyes and beheld a weird sight. She saw a room that looked very much like a room in the hotel where she lived. She looked up and realized that she was sleeping in a queen-sized bed with a clear white canopy over it. Chelsea touched the sheets and noticed that they were white Egyptian cotton, with a white fleece blanket over that, and then finally a dark blue comforter over that. Chelsea wondered if it was possible that she was back home sleeping in one of the luxury suite beds of the hotel. She sat up in the bed and as the covers slid off of her she noticed the gauze bandages that were wrapped around her breasts. Chelsea sighed as she realized that she was still somewhere in Aperture. She looked around at the room and noticed that it was home decorated. The room was as large as a standard single hotel room so it was a decent size. On both sides of the bed, there were matching bedside tables with antique lamps on top of them. On the one on the right, there was a digital alarm clock that read 12:35pm. Against the wall on her left side, there was a desk with a computer from the 1990's on top of it. Further down, Chelsea noticed a door. She got out of the bed to see where it led. The door was a sliding door that was motion activated. Chelsea walked up to it, and the door slid up to open. She looked inside to see a large luxurious bathroom with a sink, a toilet, a vanity, a towel rack, a closet, and a large tub with a shower attached. Chelsea turned to her right to look to the front of the room and saw a wardrobe and next to the wardrobe a cabinet of some sort. She opened the wardrobe and saw a bunch of dresses and high heeled shoes. Chelsea grimaced at them as she shut the wardrobe doors and opened the cabinet doors. In the cabinet, there was a large television with one videocassette and a remote on the shelf under it. She looked to the right of the cabinet and saw a small sitting area in the right corner. There was a tall bookshelf with many books, a blue couch with a coffee table in front of it, a red rug under that, and a floor lamp next to the couch. Chelsea noticed that all the furniture was made of chestnut wood. From the luxurious décor, Chelsea figured that this room must have belonged to Caroline since she was the only one important enough to warrant such décor. Caroline must have made good money to be able to coordinate everything so well. Everything was home-decorated except for the floor which was the same tile as the rest of Aperture. The rest of the wall was blank except for a portrait of Cave Johnson and Caroline hanging over the couch. On the ceiling, there was a light and a small vent. As she took the view in, Chelsea was very confused.

"Where am I?" Chelsea asked herself out loud. "What in the hell is going on?"

"This is the surprise that I was telling you about," GLaDOS said.

Startled, Chelsea looked around and found GLaDOS's camera hanging just in front of the cabinet where the television was.

"Working in the facility often required long hours from Caroline," GLaDOS said. "She arranged for the construction of a home away from home as a place for her to stay when she had to work those long hours and did not have time to go back home. That is how this room came to be. Not many of Aperture's employees knew about it. This room's existence was kept secret from almost everyone for the sake of her privacy. Only Caroline knew where it was located and how to get in… or out."

GLaDOS allowed enough time for her last words to sink in. Chelsea's eyes flashed with horror as she looked around and realized that there were no doors or windows in the room or in the bathroom. In a panic, Chelsea ran around the room to look for anything that resembled a door. She checked in the bathroom, under the desk, under the bed, on the other side of the bookshelf, and on the other side of the cabinet, but she could not find anything. Chelsea stood in terror from a sort of claustrophobia. She felt like a trapped animal. Her breaths were shallow, and her heart beat quickly as she wondered what she would do next. Was this her psychological treatment?

"Your food is going to get cold," GLaDOS said calmly.

Chelsea looked at the coffee table and noticed a tray of food sitting there. There was a glass of water and a plate of spaghetti and meatballs with silver wear and a napkin. Chelsea eyed it very suspiciously.

"No offense," Chelsea said looking at the camera. "But the last time that I took any meal of yours, I woke up drugged on a gurney about a week later. I think I'll pass."

"I did not put anything in the food or in the drink this time, princess," GLaDOS said. "I don't need you to sleep anytime soon. You can eat without worry."

"I ate a dead bird this morning," Chelsea said smiling. "I think I'll be fine."

"Disgusting," GLaDOS said not hiding her disgust in her voice. "All the same, that was several hours ago. It is now the afternoon. You need to eat something else for lunch. You surely cannot tell me that you do not even feel a little bit hungry."

Chelsea did feel hungry, but she did not budge. She felt her mother's stubbornness build up inside of her.

"I do not want to eat," Chelsea yelled. "I want to leave! Tell me how to get out of here."

"That is too bad," GLaDOS said in an emotionless tone that gave Chelsea chills. "Since you refuse to eat, I'll have to put you to sleep again. When you wake up, there will be doctor robots forcing predigested food into a tube down your esophagus."

"You want to force feed me?"

"I do not want to, but if you give me no other alternative, I will have to resort to it."

Chelsea stared at the ground in fear.

"Get this into your head, princess," GLaDOS continued coldly. "If you want to act like a lunatic, you will be treated like a lunatic. Is that understood? Now, are you going to make me get out the feeding tube or are you going to eat your food voluntarily? The choice is yours."

Just then, Chelsea heard a whisper sing into her ear, "I feel you, Johanna. I feel you. Do they think that walls can hide you? Even now, I'm at your window. I am in the dark beside you buried sweetly in your raven hair. Johanna!"

Chelsea's eyes lit up. It was Jeffrey. He had shapeshifted into a lizard and crawled behind her right ear. He was hidden from view by Chelsea's black hair. She had to talk to him.

"Alright, GLaDOS," Chelsea said looking up. "I'll eat the food. Okay?"

"Good," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea picked up the tray and started walking to the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked.

"I am going to eat alone in the bathroom," Chelsea replied.

"No, you're not," GLaDOS replied closing the door in front of Chelsea. "I want you to eat out here with me. Now, sit down on the couch."

Chelsea sighed and reluctantly obeyed. She walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Well, there goes my plan," Chelsea thought to herself. "How am I supposed to talk to Jeff now? Help me, God. I don't know what I'm supposed to say to her considering our last conversation."

GLaDOS snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Aren't you going to eat?" she asked.

"Yeah," Chelsea said coming back to reality. "I was just praying."

Chelsea looked over the food. It was a meal that she recognized only from media.

"Is this spaghetti?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes, it is," GLaDOS said. "Spaghetti and meatballs."

"I see you didn't hesitate to slaughter another cow," Chelsea said sarcastically. "We're going to run out of milk at this rate."

"We have plenty more where this came from," GLaDOS said. "You don't have to worry. This meal requires some experience to eat correctly. Considering your background, you probably do not have this experience. Do you need me to tell you how to eat it?"

Chelsea decided to mess with her.

"Oh, no! I know how," she said smiling.

Chelsea held her hair back with her right hand and started eating the food face first like a dog making as many disgusting noises as possible.

"Oh, God," GLaDOS said in disgust. "Did your mother teach you any manners at all?"

Chelsea sat up and said, "Of course, she did."

She wiped her face with the napkin that was on the tray. Then Chelsea placed the napkin in her lap, and she started cutting up the food gingerly with a fork and a knife. She ate a cut up piece of meatball. Chelsea had to admit to herself that it tasted pretty good. GLaDOS was speechless at the sight of this human's bizarre behavior.

"I was just messing with you," Chelsea said.

"Why?" GLaDOS asked.

"Why did you tell my mother that you had found her parents when you were making her test?"

"I thought it would be funny."

"That is why."

Chelsea cut the spaghetti up and proceeded to eat it. She actually knew what she was doing.

"I'm surprised," GLaDOS said. "If you have never eaten this before, how do you know how to eat it?"

"I watch movies and television shows," Chelsea said. "It is actually not that hard."

"Well, I hope you enjoy everything that I will feed you," said GLaDOS in an unnaturally kind tone. "In fact, I hope that you enjoy everything. I want you to be so happy that you never even consider running away from me ever again. You can be comfortable here. I'm doing everything I can to make that possible."

"I wish that she would stop putting on this act, God," Chelsea prayed in her mind. "I know she doesn't really care about me. Why is she going out of her way to pretend otherwise? Does she really think she can convince me? It's obnoxious."

"That is why I prepared this room for you," GLaDOS continued. "It was a mess when we found it but after several weeks of work we made it look like new. I thought it would be a nice place to stay. You will be staying in here and eating all your meals here from now on. Speaking of which, how do you like it?"

"It's actually really good," Chelsea replied honestly. "Have to worry about the carbs though. If you keep giving me this many carbs, I could get fat."

"That is the idea. While I don't want you to be morbidly obese like your mother, I need you to be at a healthy weight so that we can go on with the experiment. If a mother is underweight, then the baby could make it worse. I want your pregnancy to be healthy, so we need you to eat as well as possible."

"You won't have to worry about that. I'm not getting pregnant."

"Whatever you say, princess," GLaDOS said not in the mood to have this conversation with Chelsea once again.

GLaDOS may have respected her stubborn spirit just as she respected Chell's, but it sure felt grating at times. The teen was relentless and would never give up. It was almost enough to get on GLaDOS's nerves. However at the moment, she had something else on her mind. She had a question that she wanted to ask, but she was unsure about how to go about it. GLaDOS pondered how to go about it for a few minutes while Chelsea ate. Eventually, she decided that she would just be straightforward.

"I need to ask you something," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea looked up in anticipation.

GLaDOS went on, "When you were on the floor about to pass out from the gas, you said something weird. You said that you forgave me. What did you mean by that?"

Chelsea was scared. She did not know how to reply. She wanted to honor God with her response, but she really did not know how to answer GLaDOS. However she knew that if she just trusted God and was willing to speak, God would give her words to say.

Chelsea prayed and opened her mouth to speak.

"I meant exactly what I said," she said calmly. "I forgive you for the horrible things you have done to me. I forgive you for kidnapping me, for dissecting me like a frog, for threatening my family, for starving me, for experimenting on me, for wanting to ruin my life, and for even literally scarring me."

"Why?" GLaDOS asked. "Why would you do something like that? What could you possibly have to gain?"

"As a Christian, I want to do things that honor Jesus. Jesus told his followers to love their enemies and show kindness to those who hated them. Jesus prayed for the people who tortured him to death and did not seek revenge after his resurrection even though he was the Son of God. I want to show love to him by doing what he wants me to do. Furthermore, I don't want what happened to you to happen to me. I don't want to be so consumed by my bitterness and my anger that I forget who I am and turn into a monster. I want to be able to move on."

"You truly are a mature little saint. There is something else I need to know. If you forgive me, what does that mean for me? In the event that you escape, would you still try to kill me?"

Chelsea picked up her glass of water and drank it in order to give herself a minute to think. That was a very good question that GLaDOS was asking. If she forgave her, did she still need to kill her? Forgiveness did mean that she was not holding her sins against her anymore. Chelsea no longer needed to carry out her vengeance. However, Chelsea also realized that she could not leave GLaDOS alone. She would only kill more humans. Chelsea had the power to stop that from happening, so she had to stop her. Forgiveness did not mean allowing people to continue to carry out evil deeds. God still commanded justice to be done. Chelsea could pray for GLaDOS's soul, but she still had to defeat her. Since GLaDOS was not one to listen to reason, the only way to carry out justice was to kill her. Killing to stop someone from doing something evil is not a sin after all. It is a necessary act of justice.

Chelsea put down the glass and looked up at the camera again.

She said, "I still have to kill you, but I am not doing it to avenge myself or my mother anymore. I am doing it to bring you to justice. I cannot allow you to kill or ruin anyone else's life. Besides, forgiveness does not mean letting someone get away with doing wrong. Does it?"

"What does it mean then? For our relationship? Has anything really changed?" GLaDOS asked.

"What do you mean? I just said that…"

"I want to know how you are going to treat me from now on."

Chelsea ate her food for a minute as she thought about what she was going to say next. She did not know how she was going to treat GLaDOS for now on. Maybe Chelsea was not going to be mad anymore but she was not going to let the robot push her around either. How was a Christian supposed to treat someone who was going to carry out an experiment on her? She had to escape but she also had to love her enemy. How was Chelsea supposed to do both? She did not know so she just prayed and then opened her mouth.

"I will try to be kind to you I guess," Chelsea said. "I will also be praying for your soul."

GLaDOS laughed over the PA system. It caught Chelsea off guard and put her on edge.

"You are really funny, princess," GLaDOS said in amusement as she stopped laughing. "You want to kill me, but you also want to save my soul?"

"Yes," Chelsea replied defensively while at the same time knowing how ridiculous she sounded. "You have to face justice, but at the same time, you don't have to go to hell."

"You have done it, saint. For the first time, I don't know how to reply. Your words are so ridiculous that I am literally at a loss for words. Do you know how little sense you are making? Why would you show love to someone who you are planning on killing?"

"I'm only killing you because I have to, because you are evil."

"All the same, you still plan on killing me. Isn't that ethically questionable?"

"Not at all, you are evil and can't be reasoned with. I have no choice but to kill you in order to stop you. You will just keep murdering people if I don't."

"It must be nice to be that morally simplistic."

"It's not simple. If I had my way, I would not show love to you at all. I only do it because God wants me to. I personally find you despicable."

"Tell me then, why would your God tell you to do something so ridiculous? Why would he tell you to love someone so despicably evil? Can you answer that for me?"

"Because you have done horrible things and have destroyed many lives, but God still loves you. He wants you to admit that you have been wrong, Caroline. He wants you to come to him so he can clean you from your sin. Would you be willing to give him that chance?"

GLaDOS was taken completely aback. She fell silent and did not know what to say as she thought about Chelsea's words. Chelsea continued to eat and drink in silence. She finished everything and sat back against the couch. Chelsea looked at the books on the book shelf. She read over the titles. Chelsea saw _The Inferno_, _Moby Dick_, _The Prince _by Machiavelli, and a bunch of other books. Caroline must have been quite the reader. Chelsea unconsciously wrapped her arms around her body to keep herself warm.

"You look cold and dirty," GLaDOS said waking Chelsea from her thoughts. "Go take a hot bath and clean yourself up. The robots will bring you some clean clothes in a little while."

"But, why?" Chelsea asked.

"Just go."

Chelsea stood up and walked to the bathroom. The door opened for her to enter. She stepped across the threshold to enter the room, and the door slid shut behind her. Chelsea turned on her heels and put her hands on the door. It was just as she thought. GLaDOS had locked her in. Chelsea turned around and slid to the ground leaning against the door for support. She was finally alone and could talk to Jeffrey who had been hiding behind her right ear the entire time.

"Make sure the room is not bugged," Jeffrey whispered into her ear.

Chelsea immediately got on her hands and knees checking under the tub, the vanity, the toilet, and anywhere else she could think of in order to find a recording device. Chelsea sighed in relief when she did not find anything. She picked Jeffrey up from behind her ear and held him in her hands.

"It's alright, Jeffrey," she said quietly. "I couldn't find any bugs anywhere."

Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a human. He smiled sadly as he untied the sweater that was tied around his neck, and put it back on. Chelsea gave him a big hug. They proceeded to talk as quietly as they could.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you any food," Chelsea said. "That was one reason I wanted to come in here."

"It's okay," Jeff said. "I'm not hungry anyway."

"What are we going to do?"

"Don't worry. God will provide us another way to escape."

"I hope so."

"I don't hear any running water in there," GLaDOS said impatiently from the other side of the door.

Chelsea turned around and then looked back at Jeffrey.

"Whatever happens," Chelsea said. "She can't know that you're here. Stay hidden."

"Okay," Jeffrey said and then shapeshifted into a cockroach. "I will stay hidden, but I will not abandon you. I promise you that."

"Thank you."

"What are we going to do now?"

"I suppose that I should take a shower before she gets pissed at me again. Don't look. Alright?"

"Okay."

Jeffrey crawled onto the wall behind the shower curtain while Chelsea removed her bandages, her necklace, her boxer shorts, and the adult diaper. She placed those items on the chair of the vanity and stepped into the tub. Chelsea turned on the shower. She looked and saw a white shower caddy hanging from the railing. It had shampoo, soap, and all that she needed on it. Chelsea took the shampoo and lathered it into her hair.

"Jeffrey, the first thing we need to figure out is where the door is," Chelsea said. "How long were you awake before me? Did you see anything?"

"By the time I woke up, you were already in the bed and the food was already out," Jeffrey said. "I didn't see anything."

"Crap!"

"You're right though. An exit has to exist. They had to get us in here somehow. It would be a secret door that only Caroline knew how to open," Jeffrey said. "Since the place was hidden, a conventional door would not have been built anyway."

Chelsea suddenly heard GLaDOS's voice on the other side of the door. She poked her head out from behind the shower curtain.

"Yes?!" Chelsea yelled in annoyance.

"I told you to take a bath," GLaDOS said. "You are taking a shower."

"Why do you care?!"

"Showers can be drafty, but a bath would make you warmer."

"I'm just fine in a shower!"

"Take a bath."

"Fine, just let me rinse off!"

Chelsea shut the curtain and put her head under the faucet. She wondered why GLaDOS was asking her to do something so strange.

"What did she want?" Jeffrey asked.

"She wants me to take a bath instead of a shower," Chelsea said.

"Why?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

"Oh well, we will have to be quieter since there will be no running water."

Chelsea came to a realization about why GLaDOS asked her to do what she did.

"That's it, Jeff," Chelsea said. "Oh, shit! She's suspicious. I'm so stupid. She must have heard us talking in here. She wants me to take a bath so the running water won't block out the sound of me talking to anyone. She wants to hear if you're in here."

"How could she hear us?" Jeff said. "That was why we were quiet and made sure the room wasn't bugged."

"I don't know. She can hear some things. I guess. I just don't know how much."

"We'll just talk when the tub is filling up with water."

Chelsea finished rinsing off her hair and turned off the shower. She then turned on the water to fill up the tub and put a stopper that was on the caddy in the drain. Chelsea was stressed and scared.

"Oh, Jeff," Chelsea said. "Maybe she doesn't really suspect anything, but is only trying to make me nervous to the point where I psychologically break down. She is going to drive me crazy. What am I going to do?"

"Calm down and pray," Jeffrey said. "We're going to get out of here. You still have to get outside to smell the autumn air and that bush you like so much. Remember? It's all still waiting outside for you."

Chelsea closed her eyes and remembered the outside world. She remembered the beauty of Michigan in the autumn, and it inspired her to fight. Chelsea had to go outside and see it for herself. She opened her eyes and realized that the tub was almost full.

"You have any ideas," Jeffrey asked.

"I don't have anything yet," Chelsea said. "You?"

"Same here," Jeffrey said. "You and I need to think about where in the room the secret door could be. We will each be quiet and try to get the attention of the other if we think of something. Ok?"

"Okay," Chelsea said as she turned off the water.

Chelsea washed her body and her face. Then after making sure she got all the soap off, she laid back and soaked in the tub for a while. She prayed that God would give her an idea for anything really. She was trapped in a room with no doors, her friend was in danger of being caught, and she had to find a way out to get to the others before GLaDOS impregnated her. However in the midst of her troubles, Chelsea's mind began to drift around like the minds of people with ADHD tend to do. She wanted to remember something happy to stop the pain. Chelsea held her breath and went under water. She remembered all the shows and movies that she enjoyed watching. She would probably never watch a movie or television show ever again if GLaDOS had her way. Actually, that was not true. There was a television in the room with a videocassette. That was weird now that she thought about it. Caroline was so much of a workaholic that she would have a secret room made for her to sleep in so she didn't have to go home, but she had a television around? Sure, Chelsea saw Caroline go to a movie one time in her memories, but was she such a huge fan of movies that she would have a television placed in her room just so she could watch them? Surely, Caroline would have considered such an activity a waste of time if she was a super busy woman. So, why was the television there? Wait a minute!

Chelsea had her eureka moment. She came back to the surface gasping for air. As soon as Chelsea caught her breath, she peaked her head behind the curtain and whispered for Jeffrey. Jeffrey crawled back along the wall until he was in ear shot.

"What is it?" Jeffrey asked.

"Jeff, I think I know where the exit is," Chelsea said.

"Where?"

"I think it's the television."

"Really?"

"Yes, think about it. Caroline was a workaholic whose mind was always on her work for the most part. Watching television is one of the most mindless things you can do with your time. It would be used for entertainment. She would have used the computer for work or the books for reading, but she would have considered herself above doing anything mindless like watching television especially since she only had one videocassette. The television could have connected to cable or something, but it probably was mostly used for another purpose. Or maybe, it was never there in the first place and GLaDOS added that to disguise the real door. There was only one cassette after all. It's a long shot. I know that, but I think that we should look there first."

"You have a good point."

Suddenly, the two of them heard the door open, and they immediately went silent. Chelsea turned her head towards the direction of the sound while Jeffrey shapeshifted into a cockroach and ran under the tub to get a better look. Jeffrey saw a robot walk into the room carrying clothes. The robot laid the clothes on top of the vanity. Then he picked up the bandages, adult diaper, and boxer shorts and walked out. Chelsea peaked out from behind the curtain to see what he had left. She recognized her bra, her underwear, and the white dress that GLaDOS had picked out for her days before. Chelsea figured that the robot wanted her to get out soon. She pulled up the stopper to the tub and let the water out. Chelsea pulled a blue towel off of the rack on the wall and wrapped it around her body. Then she stepped out of the tub. Chelsea walked over to the vanity and picked up the dress. She could not believe that GLaDOS still wanted to dress her up like a doll in some poor woman's death dress and force her to get married. Did Chelsea's words not have any impact at all? Could GLaDOS be saved?

However for the time being, Chelsea had no choice but to do what GLaDOS wanted until she could escape. As she sat on the vanity seat and brushed her hair with a brush she found sitting out, Chelsea started to think of a plan to do just that. This plan would be better than the other ones. She would actually think this one out completely, so that it would actually work. Chelsea prayed for strength as she thought. She was desperate to escape and did not want to mess this one up. If Chelsea did, things would probably only get worse for her. She stared at her scar on her left shoulder. Chelsea did not want to know how far GLaDOS's wrath would go. However, she and Jeff needed to escape. The fear of a machine would not stop her now.

Chelsea put on the underwear, the bra, and then the dress. She did not notice it before, but there were flowers embroidered on the dress. It was actually quite pretty. It was a bit baggy on her due to the fact that Chelsea was so thin, but it was pretty nonetheless. The dress was sleeveless, so Chelsea's tattoo and scar could both be seen. GLaDOS did not know the scar would be added when picking out the dress, but right now, it was obvious that Chelsea was wearing the dress for that reason. GLaDOS liked looking at the scar. Chelsea winced in disgust, but she smiled in joy as she thought about the plan.

Jeffrey climbed to the top of the vanity mirror as Chelsea put on her red-beaded necklace. She looked at him and smiled.

Then Chelsea whispered, "Jeff, I think I have a plan."

"What is your plan?" Jeffrey replied.

"Hold on a minute."

Chelsea pulled out the drawers of the vanity until she found what she was looking for. It was a hair dryer.

"I hope this thing still works," Chelsea said. "It looks old."

"I thought you didn't blow dry your hair," Jeffrey said confused.

"I don't normally. It takes too long."

"Then, what are you doing?"

"I have to make sure that she can't hear us somehow. I just hope this thing doesn't explode or something."

Chelsea was nervous about plugging in the hairdryer. It was from the 1990's and although it looked fine on the outside, she knew from Sylvie that that did not mean it was safe. It could be damaged on the inside. The whole thing could explode, but it was the only way that Chelsea could ensure their privacy without other listening ears. To protect herself, Chelsea created a force field around her hands. She messed with the force fields for a minute to see how skin tight she could get them to be. She finally got a skin tight force field over both of her hands so that she would not be electrocuted. She smiled with satisfaction and picked up the hairdryer. Chelsea plugged it in into the wall and nothing bad happened. It didn't short circuit or anything. She smiled as she turned it on and blew dry her hair.

"Sorry about losing your boxer shorts, dude," Chelsea said. "I didn't expect her to take them away."

"It's alright," Jeffrey said. "I have plenty more of those at home. Anyways, what is your plan?"

Chelsea held her finger up to her mouth and continued blow drying her hair. When she was done, Chelsea took the hairdryer and walked until its cord could not stretch out any further. She then laid it down on the ground in front of the door and left it running. Chelsea then sat down in front of the vanity, picked up a hair tie and a brush to mess with her hair some more, and started talking.

"Ok, Jeff," Chelsea said brushing her hair. "Here's what I have in mind."

Chelsea explained her plan in every detail possible. She discussed it with Jeffrey to smooth it out as much as she could. He was better at thinking through all the minute details of plans than she was. He had confidence in her ideas and believed that it was risky but it could work. Talking to him helped Chelsea feel more confident in her own ideas. She was still scared, but she was willing to take the risk.

"We need to tell your Dad what we're going to do," Jeffrey said.

However before Chelsea could respond, she heard GLaDOS.

"You can come out whenever you like, princess," she said. "I'm ready for you."

"Alright," Chelsea yelled as she finished putting her hair in a half pony tail that covered her ears. "I'm coming out! Just a minute!"

She then turned to Jeffrey and said, "Talk to him for me. I have to face her again."

Chelsea walked over to the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked down and saw a toothbrush and toothpaste. She used these items to brush her teeth. After that, she quickly used the bathroom one last time. After washing her hands, Chelsea looked at the mirror and realized that she was breathing hard with fear and starting to sweat. She walked over to the vanity, picked up a stick of deodorant, and put it on. Chelsea looked at herself in the mirror and looked down.

"Don't be afraid, Chelsea," said Jeffrey as he flew onto her neck, shapeshifted into a lizard, and went behind her right ear. "God is with us. We are doing the right thing, and we shall succeed."

"You're right, Jeff," Chelsea said looking up. "We will succeed."

Chelsea looked on the vanity and saw some Aperture Science brand everlasting lip balm. She rubbed it on her lips to make her lips feel better. Having lip balm on always helped Chelsea feel better.

"Are you ready to go, Jeffrey?" Chelsea asked.

"I'm ready to go if you are," Jeffrey said.

"Okay, but just remember to be quiet. Do not make a move until I say so. You got it?"

"Yes, I'll be praying."

Chelsea nodded. She prayed to herself in her brain as she walked towards the hairdryer.

"God, in spite of the hell that I have endured, I know that you have been good to me," Chelsea prayed. "You have brought me my friend so that I wouldn't be alone here anymore. You have given me the ability to show your goodness to an enemy who does not deserve it. You have given me ideas so that I can get us out of here. God, I know that you have been good, but I am also afraid. She is not above mutilating my body to make me behave. God, I don't know what she'll do to me next if this doesn't work. You know more than I do what she's capable of. I'm afraid that no one can reach her now, not even me. She's lost in her own insanity, and she is going to kill me. Help me, God! I act brave, but frankly inside I am scared to death. Don't abandon me!"

Chelsea picked up the hairdryer and turned it off. She carried it back to the vanity, unplugged it, and placed it back in the drawer. Chelsea looked at herself in the mirror one last time. Before, all of her plans were carried out so quickly that she didn't have time to get scared, but this time, she had time to be nervous. Chelsea was afraid of the consequences of failure, but at the same time, she was willing to fight. She would rather die than let that robot have her way with her. Chelsea walked to the door shaking on the inside but also determined with courage. Courage after all was not the absence of fear but the willingness to keep fighting in spite of it.

The door moved up as Chelsea approached it, and she stepped out of the bathroom. A group of about three robots ran into the bathroom behind her, and Chelsea turned around just in time to see the door shut. She turned and looked around the room. The room was cleaner than before. The tray was gone, and the bed was made, but that was not all. The robots had cleaned the floors and everything else, too. The place was spotless. No wonder GLaDOS wanted her out of the way. Chelsea smiled impressed. They certainly did a lot in such a short period of time.

"Don't you look lovely?" GLaDOS said causing Chelsea to jump. "I wanted to see how you looked in the dress. I must say that you should really clean yourself up more often because you look beautiful."

"Thanks," Chelsea said looking at the camera. "I get my looks from my mother."

"You have your looks by the grace of your God," GLaDOS said spitefully. "If it were up to genetics alone, you would be hideous."

Chelsea scowled at her and said, "I appreciate the return of my bra and my underwear by the way, but I was wondering if or when I would get my other clothes back."

"Be patient," GLaDOS said. "You earn them back for good behavior. First, you got the necklace for answering my questions. Then you got your cleaned undergarments for eating and bathing. Next, I will give you more of your cleaned clothes back if you behave."

"You are rewarding my good behavior with clothes," Chelsea said. "Unbelievable."

"Anyways, GLaDOS said. "I thought the dress would fit you better. Right now, it's too big. Oh, well. You just need to gain some weight. I need you to look as pretty as possible for him."

"Who is him?" Chelsea asked.

"He could be any one of the young men that are in this facility. Since the mutated man is no longer available and your stallion can't be found, then you get to choose a husband from the men that are still left."

"That's not going to happen."

"I was afraid that you would say that. If that is the case, princess, then I will simply have to exterminate them."

Chelsea was shocked. She knew that the men were being freed, but she thought about what would happen if they weren't.

"What?" Chelsea exclaimed in order to not let on to GLaDOS that they were being freed.

"There's no reason to keep them around if you don't like them," GLaDOS said nonchalantly. "I'm moving in a new direction in my work so I have no more need for the test subjects. I'll just show you pictures one by one and eliminate every person until you find one you like."

"You don't have to do that. I'll choose one."

"Good, I see that you don't want anyone to die, but for the future, I have to tell you that you may have to get past that mindset."

"Why is that?"

"We may have to exterminate your babies."

"WHY?!"

"Your energy is precious. I can't have you waste it raising a child that I don't need for the experiment. If the child is not mutated as you are, I will throw it out and start over."

It was apparent that GLaDOS was trying to stir Chelsea up. She stared into the camera with fire behind her eyes. Chelsea's fear melted away and was replaced with anger. She lost any hesitation she previously felt about killing GLaDOS. There was no question in her mind about it now. She had to do it. Anyone who could talk about destroying a God-made life as nonchalantly as she was able to did not deserve to live. Chelsea created two discs in her hands. She was about to tear the place apart with her own two hands.

"Calm down, Chelsea," Jeffrey tried to whisper in her ear.

"I'm not hearing any more of this," Chelsea said. "I'm getting out of here!"

"You try anything, and you're going straight back to sleep," GLaDOS said. "If you continue in your violent behavior, I can just keep putting you to sleep. My lifespan is eternal so I can afford to be patient. I'm not so sure about you though."

Chelsea turned her back to the camera.

"Chelsea," Jeffrey whispered into her ear. "Your Dad said that Sylvie and the others are on their way to the anesthetic gas room. It is only a matter of time before she finds a way to shut it down now. It will be alright."

Chelsea smiled in joy. Part of her plan was coming into being. Once the gas was off, Chelsea and the others could not get caught as easily. However, she pulled herself together and made her face sullen so that she could face GLaDOS once more. Then Chelsea turned around.

"Well, saint," GLADOS said mockingly. "What is it going to be?"

"Okay," Chelsea said as she dissolved her discs. "I get it. I'll calm down. What do you want me to do for you now?"

"The robots are cleaning up the bathroom. I need you to sit on the couch and pray or whatever it is you like to do until the robots are done."

"Then what?"

"Once the robots are done in the bathroom, one of them will need to ask you questions to fill out a questionnaire for testing purposes. But until then, just relax. I don't want you to do anything else."

"Whatever."

Chelsea sat down on the couch. After a few seconds, she crawled on the couch over to the bookshelf to get a book to read and pass the time. She reached and grabbed _The Inferno_. Chelsea opened the book to the first part and started reading. If this book was every bit as good as her Dad had always said that it was, then she should be able to get into it in no time. That was good because if Chelsea was into a story enough she could mentally block out the whole world. At the moment, that was all that she wanted. Chelsea wanted to block out GLaDOS. She had to stay calm and not let GLADOS make her angry. That was essential for her plan to succeed. She had to keep GLaDOS distracted just long enough for them to find a way to turn off the gas.

"It's up to you now, Sylvie," Chelsea said inside her head as she read. "God, please help her. I know that she can do it."


	19. Chapter 19

Meanwhile somewhere in the facility, Kayla was telekinetically carrying Sylvie and the robots down the center of a flight of stairs while Albina was riding down the railings on her feet which she had frozen into blocks of ice and while being propelled by her winds. Sylvie was calmly watching the walls go by to find the floor that they were looking for. P-Body and Alpha were doing twirls and flips in the air clearly having the time of their lives while Atlas was curled up in a ball and shivering. He was afraid of what would happen if Kayla let go. He hated it when he could not see where he was falling.

"I still don't get it," Kayla said. "Chelsea wants us to find the anesthetic gas room, but she doesn't want us to turn off the gas right away?"

"Yes," Sylvie said. "Chelsea's plan is to trick GLaDOS into opening the exit. There's obviously a way for her to get things into and out of the room, but she doesn't want Chelsea to be able to escape through that way. So in the event that something happens when she has to open the exit, she won't do so unless she thinks that she can knock out Chelsea first. That is why the gas has to be able to turn on."

"But, when GLaDOS turns on the gas, what is going to stop Chelsea from passing out?" Kayla asked.

"Jeffrey is," Albina said. "He can shapeshift into anything. Remember?"

"Oh," Kayla said. "I understand now. But why can't we just go where she is? We could just go to Caroline's room and break her out ourselves."

"I wish we could," Sylvie said. "But I did not see anything on the computer database about where Caroline's secret room was."

"Nothing at all?" Kayla asked.

"Nothing," Sylvie said. "Most information that existed about Caroline appeared to have been deleted. It doesn't mention her at all. It seems that they were in a rush to cover up the fact that she existed."

"That doesn't surprise me," Albina said. "They did not want anyone to know what they had done to her."

"How could they do that to someone then just pretend that person didn't exist anymore?" Kayla asked. "That is so cruel."

"This place was home to some very evil people, Kayla," Albina said sadly.

"It's just hard to believe that anyone could be that cruel," Kayla said.

"You have no idea how bad people can be," Albina said darkly looking down.

Alpha looked at Albina in concern.

"Oh, well," Kayla said. "At least, we can take comfort in the fact that the people who caused suffering here got what they deserved then and are still being punished for it now. We just have to defeat the last perpetrator. Then we're going to get out of here, and Sylvie will write that book."

"Speaking of which," Albina said. "How close are we to finding that room?"

"Stop right here," Sylvie said.

Kayla telekinetically stopped the group in mid-air while Albina dissolved the ice on her feet, jumped off the railing, and flew in place. They were stopped in front of a door next to a sign which labeled it the 68th floor.

"We have to go in there," Sylvie said as she pointed to the door. "The anesthetic gas room is down that hallway."

"Alright," Kayla said.

She set Sylvie and the other robots down in front of the door. Albina landed behind them. Sylvie placed her hands on the wall and telepathically made sure that the cameras were still shut off. She smiled because they were. GLADOS hadn't been able to repair them yet.

"The cameras are off," Sylvie said as she opened the door. "We should be good to go."

"Awesome," Kayla said as she flew through the doorway.

P-Body walked through next. He had to drag Atlas behind him because he was stiff with fear from the flight. Alpha followed after them, Sylvie followed after him, and Albina came in behind her and shut the door.

"Follow me," Sylvie said walking in front of everyone.

Sylvie hid it well, but she was nervous. She did not know how she was going to get to a place where she could turn off the gas. Sylvie could not deactivate the neurotoxin when GLaDOS was awake, so she was afraid that the anesthetic gas would be the same. It would probably be better being close by, but all the same, she knew that the place was probably put under heavy security. Sylvie could manipulate the robots. GLaDOS knew that, so she probably had something else set up. Nonetheless, Sylvie knew that she had to do it. If she didn't, GLaDOS could just keep catching them. She said a prayer for peace and strength and pushed on.

Meanwhile in the back after taking a few steps, Alpha froze in place and did not take another step. Albina crouched next to him.

"What are you doing?" Albina asked.

"Can we really do this?" Alpha asked frantically. "Can we really win?"

"Yes, God is on our side."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Are you afraid, Alpha?"

"Well, I'm not afraid of the robots killing me. I can shoot them, but what about when we face her? I was never really alive until I met you guys. Now that I'm really alive, I'm afraid of dying or being sent to android hell. I don't want to die here. I don't want to be trapped here either. I want you to take me outside again. I want to keep looking at the sky. It was so beautiful last night. I'm afraid I'll never see it again."

Albina wrapped her arms around him. She remembered her mother and the rest of her family. Albina wanted to protect her new friend in the way that she wasn't able to protect them. She would not fail anyone else.

Albina stroked his head and said, "Alpha, you will see the outside again. I will not let you die here. I will not let anyone else die either. God is with us. Our endeavor is righteous, so we will succeed."

"Okay," Alpha said finding comfort in her words. "I'll do it. I'll make sure that no one dies under my watch either."

"Will you be alright?"

"I think so."

Albina let go of him and pat him on the head.

"Are you ready to go?" Albina asked.

"Yes," Alpha replied.

As Albina started to get up, Alpha spoke up again.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that outside God made a star move really fast last night," he said. "It was beautiful. Does he do that a lot?"

"You must be talking about shooting star," Albina said. "That was not really star. It was rock from outer space being burned up by earth's atmosphere."

"Oh," Alpha said sounding slightly disappointed. "Oh, well! It was still beautiful. Does God make a lot of those?"

"They happen fairly often," Albina said getting up. "You just have to watch for them."

"Hey," Alpha said walking in front of her. "When this is over, can we go outside and watch the stars again? Can we fly back up there?"

"Yes," Albina said smiling. "We will go outside and watch the stars. Chelsea will come with us, too. She loves looking at stars and photographing them."

"Okay," Alpha said.

Just then, Kayla flew back and saw Albina with Alpha.

"Are you two alright?" Kayla asked. "Sylvie sent me back to look for you."

"I just had to offer him some emotional support," Albina said as she started walking down the hall. "He was a little bit scared."

"I'm alright now though," Alpha said. "I'll be okay."

"That's good to hear," Kayla said. "Because Sylvie found the room."

"She did?" Albina asked.

"Yeah," Kayla said. "Follow me."

Kayla took off flying in the other direction.

Albina bent down to pick up Alpha.

"Thank you," Alpha said.

"No problem," Albina said as she picked him up.

She then flew after Kayla. The two girls continued flying down the hallway until they reached Sylvie, Atlas, and P-Body standing on the right side of a large window. When the trio arrived, Sylvie placed a finger over her mouth and motioned for them to look through the window. Albina and Sylvie looked through the window into a large factory-like room with a large machine labeled "xenon gas." It looked exactly like the neurotoxin generator with tubes connecting into the wall. On the left side of the window they were looking into was a door leading to some stairs that went into the main room and a walkway going all around. There was a main entrance on the ground floor for the robots to enter in and out of. All on the floor were robots looking at the machine and all of its monitors to make sure that it was working. There were security cameras in there as well. The trio stepped to the right of the window and sat down. They needed a plan.

"So, what do we do now?" Kayla asked.

"We should just take them out all at once," Albina said.

"I can help," Alpha said pulling out his guns.

"No," Sylvie said. "The camera in there is on. If GLaDOS sees us, Chelsea's plan is ruined. She will tighten the security on her and she will not be able to get out when we do turn off the gas. We need to think of something else."

Suddenly, Atlas had an idea. He pulled Sylvie's arm and started chirping.

"No, she's not paying attention right now," Sylvie said. "She's busy watching Chelsea."

Atlas chirped for a while and used many hand gestures explaining his plan. Sylvie smiled and understood every word. P-Body gave a nod as well.

"That just might work," Sylvie said. "Let's do it."

Atlas ran on ahead with P-Body running close behind him. Sylvie after putting her hand on the wall for a second ran on ahead and gestured for the others to follow her. Confused, Kayla flew ahead while Albina did the same.

"What was that?" Kayla asked. "What did he say?"

"You'll see," Sylvie said smiling.

"It is not like you to keep us in the dark like this," Albina said.

"Trust me," Sylvie said. "He has a good plan."

P-Body opened a door leading to some stairs. He held it open until Sylvie came. After she came, he and Atlas went ahead and ran down the stairs. The others followed them down the stairs and towards where the main doors to enter the room were. Atlas and P-Body exited the stairs and gestured for their friends to stay in the stairway for the time being. Sylvie smiled and nodded.

"What exactly are they planning on doing?" Kayla asked.

"Just watch and see," Sylvie said.

Atlas and P-Body walked towards the doors. There were currently no robots coming in or out, so the room was empty. It was just the two of them about to take on a challenge, the way it had always been. Except now, they now knew they were finally doing something good. They were nervous, but God-willing, they would succeed or at least die trying. Atlas placed his hand on P-Body's shoulder and stared at him to ask him if he was ready. P-Body nodded and did the same thing to Atlas. They both gave quiet chirps of approval and looked forward as the ladies watched from the stairwell. The robots threw open the doors so that they hit the wall. Thankfully, GLaDOS was still not paying attention. The camera that was on the right corner of the room so that it could see everything was disabled temporarily by Sylvie. It was perfect. The robots in the room turned around quickly to see Atlas and P-Body. The two jumped up and down while making loud chirping noises.

"Isn't that Orange and Blue?" one of the robots asked.

"What are they doing here?" another one of the robots asked.

"That doesn't matter," another one of the robots said. "The boss demanded for them to be exterminated, so we have to stop them now."

The robots made teasing gestures and shut the doors. They ran back quickly making chirping noises to signal to everyone else to get ready.

"I get it now," Kayla said smiling as she rushed out of the stairwell with everyone else following behind her.

Albina quickly dropped Alpha on the floor and stood ready to attack. All the other robots ran out of the room in a group rushing straight towards Atlas and P-Body. However, they were quickly broadsided by Albina, Kayla, and Alpha. Albina froze the floor and created instant icicles freezing one-third of the robots in their place. Kayla tore another third of them apart telekinetically while Alpha shot any of the survivors that remained. The trio was satisfied with their work. However, Sylvie now understanding the sentience of the robots found their pain hard to bear. She shut most of them off telepathically so that they would not have to suffer any more. Sylvie only left one alive to tell them how the machine worked. She did not expect to feel this much empathy for them. She didn't know why she only felt this way now and not before when Atlas was explaining the plan. She didn't expect to feel so much for them. Sylvie stared at the ground in sadness as she walked over to the one robot shivering in ice that was still alive. She kneeled down and placed her hand on top of its cold head in order to read its mind. After getting the information that she needed, Sylvie placed her hand on its head and shut him down in sympathy. As she turned away, a tear rolled down her cheek and she wondered if there was a better way that this could have been done.

Kayla noticed the tear and asked, "Is something wrong, Sylvie?"

Albina looked at Sylvie and wanted to know what was happening.

"What is the matter?" Albina asked.

"I shouldn't have gone along with this plan," Sylvie said. "They are not just things you know. They are sentient beings like me and you. I could hear their thoughts and feel their pain as they died. I don't know why I didn't feel this way before."

"We didn't do anything wrong, Sylvie," Albina said. "They would have turned us in. We were simply acting in self-defense."

"They were just bad robots," Alpha said innocently as Atlas and P-Body nodded.

"So were all three of you," Sylvie snapped at them. "At one time, you three were on her side, too. What makes you any different than them?"

P-Body and Atlas were taken aback and backed up. Alpha was shaken up too, but he had the courage to respond.

"We decided to be good," Alpha said sounding like he was about to cry. "We aren't bad robots anymore."

"They could have chosen to do the same thing," Sylvie said sadly.

"But they didn't," Albina said.

"I could have just changed their minds," Sylvie said. "Like Alpha."

"Then they would just be brainwashed slaves," Albina said. "Is that what you would want?"

"I'm not brainwashed," Alpha said defensively. "I did what you said because I was told to at first but now I want to be good. I do it because I want to not because I'm brainwashed!"

"Exactly, I could have taken over their minds for now and let them make up their own minds later," Sylvie said.

"We didn't have the time for that," Albina said as she walked around the pile of dead robots to the door. "We don't have time for it now either. We have to make sure that we can turn off the xenon gas machine so GLaDOS can't put us to sleep anymore."

Albina held open the door for Atlas, P-Body, and Alpha to walk through.

Then she said, "You're way too hard on yourself, Sylvie. We did what we could do at the moment, and we acted in self-defense. It wasn't wrong. They were just monsters who needed to be defeated. You need to let it go. It may sound harsh to say, but it's the truth. You will need to remember that if you are going to be killing aliens."

Then, Albina let it swing shut behind her. Only Kayla lingered over the dead robots as Sylvie stood there in her conflicted grief.

"You know," Kayla said. "You could always fix the robots later and let them decide then. You have the ability to heal them. Don't you?"

"I can't," Sylvie said. "When I shut them down, it's permanent. We have all sent them to hell's judgment."

"Oh," Kayla said. "Well, Albina's right. They were evil. We had no other choice. God understands that. You don't have to feel bad. I don't."

"I sympathize with God now. He said that he felt sorrow over the suffering of his people even if they were evil."

"The Bible also says that he rejoices in the punishment of the wicked."

"I wonder which one he feels more."

"I guess it's a mix of both."

Kayla flew over to the doors.

"We had better get in there before Albina and the others get impatient," Kayla said. "You're the only one who knows how to turn off this machine. Come on!"

"Okay," Sylvie said walking to the doors.

Meanwhile, Chelsea was still in the room sitting on the couch reading _The Inferno_. The book was even better than her Dad had described it to be. She would have to take it with her when she left. Even after the bath and shower however, Chelsea felt cold, so she stood up, walked over to the closet, and pulled out a long trench coat to put on. After putting it on, she walked back to the couch and sat down to read some more. Chelsea was cold, but she also figured that she needed to use it for when she went outside. She would have put on shoes as well, but she was afraid that GLaDOS would start to get suspicious.

"If you were cold, you could have said something," GLaDOS said. "I'll turn up the heat in there. Freezing humans is not required for your experiment after all."

"Thanks," Chelsea muttered without thinking.

GLaDOS was taken aback.

"I think that is the first time that you have actually thanked me for something," GLaDOS said. "Our relationship appears to be improving."

Chelsea said nothing but rolled her eyes. GLaDOS did not give up trying to communicate. She just wanted Chelsea to talk back.

"Since that is the case," GLaDOS continued. "I must repay you with some advice. You look good in the dress, but you should probably put on make-up if you want your mate to like you."

"Why bother?" Chelsea asked. "We're not going to really see each other, so what's the point?"

"Well, I've been thinking about that. It is wrong for me to deprive you of the most pleasure that a human can ever have, so if the first child reproduced from artificial insemination turns out to be mutated, I may let you attempt to reproduce the others naturally as a reward."

Chelsea delivered a glare to GLaDOS in disgust. She could not believe what she was saying.

"In order for the mating to commence, the mates have to find each other attractive at least," GLaDOS said. "I suggest that you make yourself look as beautiful as possible."

Chelsea tried to stay calm. She would not have sex. She would get out. She just had to stay calm and wait.

"That is not happening," Chelsea said as she picked up the book and continued to read. "I refuse."

"I must insist," GLaDOS said. "Though the process is ridiculous, most humans find it quite enjoyable. It may be your only opportunity after all if the world is as bad as you say it is."

Chelsea was silently absorbed in her book and not listening.

"Alright," GLaDOS said. "I'll drop it for now. I'll ask you again after the birth of your first child."

Chelsea was at the section where Dante and Virgil were in the place where people who deliberately sinned were being judged. A snake-like creature called Minos would wrap his tail around his body and the number of times it coiled around the body determined the circle of hell that the soul would be sent to. Out of morbid curiosity, Chelsea was curious to see which circle of hell that GLaDOS would be sent to, so she skipped ahead a bit. The seventh circle of hell was where she would go. She would have been on the outer ring because her sin was violence against humans. In this circle, sinners were immersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire, to a level that matched their sins. The river was guarded by centaurs who would shoot with arrows whoever tried to get more of their body out of the water than they were allowed.

"GLaDOS would be in over her head," Chelsea thought to herself. "She has killed so many people. She would be drowning in all the boiling blood and fire that she would be in."

Chelsea chuckled silently to herself in morbid and sadistic joy as she flipped back to the page she was at in the book. GLaDOS noticed.

"What are you laughing about?" said GLaDOS. "The book you are reading is not meant to be funny."

"I can't tell you," Chelsea said. "It's not very nice."

"Oh," GLaDOS said unemotionally. "Are you still trying to be kind to me?"

"You might say that."

"Well, I know all about that book. In the book as you probably already know, there are different levels or circles of hell. In each circle, sinners are categorized by their sin and endure different punishments that fit their crimes from life. As the travelers go deeper into hell, each circle of sinners is more evil than the last. You want to know something interesting? In the eighth circle of hell below the circle of the violent was the circle of the fraudulent. You know who was among those punished in that circle? Thieves."

Chelsea looked up at GLaDOS. She would not have guessed that thieves would be considered worse than murderers on the one hand. But on the other hand, she knew what GLaDOS was implying.

"In hell, thieves were punished by being pursued and bitten by snakes and lizards," GLaDOS continued. "The snake's venom would make them go through various transformations. The punishment was just. Just as they had stolen the substances of other people in life, their identities were stolen from them there. Stealing from another person was considered such a terrible thing. Thieves were considered to be more evil than even murderers."

Chelsea scowled at GLaDOS. She then relaxed her face to appear more at peace and unemotional so that GLaDOS would not continue to have the pleasure of knowing how she felt. Chelsea wished then that she could be more like her mother in that regard. Her mother could hide her feelings and be strong effortlessly. Chelsea had to make an effort.

Chelsea looked back at the book and said calmly, "It's good news that I'm not a thief then."

"Really?" GLaDOS continued. "What would you call a person who breaks into places and takes what does not belong to them then?"

Chelsea looked up. GLaDOS was just baiting her and trying to make her angry. Nonetheless, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to respond to a question like this one. It would honor God after all. After thinking for a moment, she responded.

"That all depends on the context of the situation," she said. "If that person lived in a normal civilization where there was an established way to work and earn what they wanted and needed but stole because they did not want to work, that person would be called a thief. However if that person lived in a world without any established civilizations or ways to work and earn what they wanted and needed, they would have no choice but to go out and take whatever they could find wherever they could find it. That person would be called a scavenger."

"That was a very smart response, Chelsea," Jeffrey whispered into her ear.

GLaDOS thought to herself that that response was smart too, but she did not let onto it. She decided to push her some more.

"Interesting," GLaDOS said. "Couldn't murder also be justified depending on the context?"

"Yes," Chelsea replied. "Killing to defend yourself or to stop someone from doing terrible is not considered murder."

Then she added, "However, killing for one's own selfish mission is murder."

GLaDOS was silent, so Chelsea felt satisfied. The room was starting to get warmer so Chelsea removed the trench coat and laid it over her legs like a blanket.

"I still cannot believe that you were going to go outside in the freezing cold weather wearing nothing but a sweater and boxer shorts," GLaDOS said. "You would have frozen to death. You're lucky that I stopped you."

"I wouldn't have cared," Chelsea said while reading. "I have lived in Michigan for my whole life. I know how to deal with a little cold. Besides, I would have been free."

"But you would have been cold," GLaDOS said.

GLaDOS sat in silence for a while to try to think of something else to say to the human in order to probe her psyche. This was supposed to be her psychological treatment, but Chelsea was seemingly very calm and unconcerned about it. She had to do something else. GLaDOS decided that it might be best to mock her ideals once again.

She was silent for a minute before she went on.

"Humans like you are stupid," GLaDOS said.

"Really," Chelsea said not appearing to care. "How so?"

"You would sacrifice something good for something worthless like an ideal?" GLaDOS asked. "Why would a human rather live free with no assurance of survival than live in a place where they had all their needs provided instead? Your decisions make no sense from a logical point of view. You could have anything you needed and be safe or you could be free and risk death on a daily basis. Humans like you will end up dying in the cold while those who are willing to compromise live on."

"Ideals are more valuable than anything else," Chelsea said obviously peeved.

Before she could continue, she stopped herself. Chelsea realized that the robot was just baiting her and that she did not need to give her the satisfaction of an answer. However, she found it incredibly hard to do so.

GLaDOS continued, "You follow the ideals of an old book. I know that I will get nowhere in telling you the stupidity of this decision since the religious cannot be persuaded to think rationally. People like you just refuse to see the validity in any way of thinking but your own. That makes you stupid. That is why your kind have been mocked for centuries. Christians have refused to compromise while every other belief system in the world has been able to at least allow other possibilities for looking at reality. Christians are all so narrow-minded. Don't you think that is ridiculous? How do you feel about it? They say that silence is the same thing is consent. Does your silence mean you agree with me and are admitting that I'm right?"

Chelsea was really stressed because of GLaDOS. She was trying so hard not to respond and just not to care, but she was making it incredibly difficult. Just then though, she heard her father's voice.

"Chelsea," Zaki said telepathically. "They have found the anesthetic room and are ready to turn off the xenon gas whenever you tell them, too. We only have about ten more people to get out too, so we need you to distract her with this as long as possible."

"You can count on me, Dad," Chelsea said in her mind.

Meanwhile GLaDOS was just waiting in silence wondering what her subject was going to say. Chelsea stood up, put on the trench coat, folded down the page of the book she was reading, carried it under her right arm, and walked to the center of the room.

"Sticking to one's beliefs even in the face of opposition is not a bad thing, GLaDOS," said Chelsea. "Not agreeing with the majority does not make you wrong. Criticize me however you want. I'm not going to let go of my beliefs or my freedom just because you pressure me to even if you were to brand me a thousand more times. I will keep fighting for freedom. In fact, I propose that I can escape whenever I want to. I know the way out."

"Really?" GLaDOS said feigning cold control but feeling slightly alarmed inside. "Where is the exit then?"

"It's right there," Chelsea said pointing to the television.

She looked on the shelf below the TV and noticed that the videocassette and the remote were missing. That only confirmed her suspicions.

"I may not know much about Caroline," Chelsea said. "However, I'm pretty sure that she was a workaholic, so why would she have a television in here?"

"I can answer that," GLaDOS said. "Meetings were often taped on videocassettes and she would use the television to go over old meetings and remember what was said."

"That was the only reason."

"Yes."

Chelsea thought for a second, then she said, "Videocassettes were invented in 1980's, and she became you in the 1990's. She would not have had much time to use it for that reason if that was the only reason that it was there. She had to have put it up for another reason."

"It also used to be connected to cable," GLaDOS said.

"Look, I know Aperture was a messed up place, but I seriously doubt that the facility paid for Caroline to have cable," Chelsea said. "Furthermore, the videocassette and the remote were there before. They are gone now. They have been removed because they are the keys to leaving the room. Aren't they?"

"Where are you going with this?" GLaDOS asked. "What does it matter if you're right? The door is still locked and you can't escape. If you try, I will put you to sleep."

"I have a proposition for you then, GLaDOS," Chelsea said. "Give me a minute. Shut off your camera, do not turn on the gas, do not call your robots, and let me try to break out of here. If I can do it, you have to give me my clothes back."

"Why would you think that I would agree to something so ridiculous?" GLaDOS said turning to another monitor to look over Chelsea's medical exam results again. "Sit back down and wait for the robots to come out. They're almost done."

"If I can't do it, I will tell you what my family is up to," Chelsea said.

GLaDOS quickly focused in on the girl. She was now interested.

"What did you just say?" GLaDOS asked.

"I said that if I lose I will tell you anything you want to know about what my family is right now doing in this facility," Chelsea said. "I will even tell you where they are. I'm sure that you would want to know if they were doing something bad. I won't go back on my word either. You can brand me again if I do."

GLaDOS had figured that Chelsea had known their plans all along since she could talk to her father telepathically, but she never thought that she would be willing to tell her. The girl was acting out of desperation. GLaDOS could sense it.

"You are really serious about this," GLaDOS said. "Are you really willing to risk something like that? If I allow you to do this, would you be willing to tell me anything I wanted to know in return? Would you help me by betraying your own family?"

"Only if I can't escape," Chelsea said.

"You do know that the odds of you succeeding are absolutely miniscule even with your discs," GLaDOS said condescendingly. "You can't cut open a door like the exit door in only a minute with light beam discs. Your discs are sharp, but they can't break through in that short amount of time."

"Don't you worry," Chelsea said smiling and crossing her arms. "I have my ways."

"As ridiculous as this challenge sounds, I think it sounds amusing. I'll give you a chance. Tell me one more time so that I understand. What are my rules?"

"You have to turn off your camera for one minute to let me have a chance to escape. During that time, you can't do anything to interfere."

"Okay."

"However when the minute is up, you can turn on the gas and let me have time to fall asleep. Then you can turn your camera on and let the robots come in here."

"Why can't I watch you fall asleep?"

"I don't want you to. You abide by my rules or the deal is off and you never find out a thing from me."

"Okay, fine! I'll abide by your rules for now. Are you ready to begin, princess?"

"No! There is one thing I have to do first."

Chelsea walked over to the wardrobe and started looking through shoes. She rummaged through the bottom until she finally found a pair of flat rain boots. After that, Chelsea searched the drawers underneath finding socks. She quickly slipped both of them on. The shoes unfortunately though were too tight for her feet, so she threw them both off. None of the other shoes were running shoes so Chelsea would have to go barefoot.

"That was a disappointment," Chelsea said. "Oh, well!"

"Now, are you ready?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yes," Chelsea replied. "I'm ready."

"Okay," GLaDOS said. "The countdown starts…now."

Chelsea saw the camera quickly turn off and hang limp. She knew that she was now alone.

"Jeffrey, human, now," Chelsea said quickly.

Jeffrey jumped off her shoulder and shapeshifted into a human. Chelsea handed him her book.

"Stuff this into your backpack," Chelsea said. "Now!"

"What?" Jeffrey said. "Okay!"

Jeffrey quickly took off his backpack and stuffed the book into it. Then he put it back on. Meanwhile, Chelsea was trying to move the wardrobe by putting her disc under it to lift it up.

"Help me, Jeff!" Chelsea yelled. "We need to put this in front of the bathroom."

"To keep out the robots?" Jeffrey said as he shapeshifted into a forklift picking up the wardrobe.

"Exactly!" Chelsea said.

Jeffrey put down the wardrobe and shapeshifted into a human again.

"Now, what?" Jeffrey asked.

"We carry on the plan as before," Chelsea said. "Let's break down the door."

"Right!"

Chelsea pulled out her discs and started cutting off pieces of the television and cabinet. Jeffrey shapeshifted into an elephant and started using his tusks and trunk to pull the cabinet away. Chelsea had been right. There were wires connecting into the wall. Unfortunately for them however, they still had a thick iron door to break open. There wasn't enough time.

"Time's up," GLaDOS announced over the PA system. "I'm turning on the gas."

Chelsea and Jeffrey looked at each other.

"You ready for part two?" Chelsea asked.

"You bet," Jeffrey said.

GLaDOS waited for the two minutes required in order for the gas to take effect. She could tell from her sensors that the door had not been opened. She did not understand why this human had taken up the challenge to begin with. Humans were known to crazy things in desperation, but this plan was just insane. Surely, the test subject knew that it was impossible. She was just wasting her time and betraying her family in the process. The latter was more perplexing because that was a behavior she had proven time and again she would never do. The psychological treatment must have already been having an effect. It was making her more desperate to save her own life and less caring towards her own family. Her psyche was more fragile than GLaDOS imagined it would be. When the human awoke, she would have to confess everything she knew. Then GLaDOS would have them all. She finally turned on the camera and saw the human lying on the ground unconscious. Her back was facing the camera and her face was facing where the television used to be. The television and cabinet that were holding it were completely destroyed. That was both a surprise and a disappointment. It was surprising that the test subject was strong enough to destroy something that big in such a short amount of time. However, it was disappointing because somebody had to clean that up. GLaDOS opened the bathroom door but upon looking at the door she realized that Chelsea had shut the robots in with a wardrobe probably in order to buy herself some more time. GLaDOS sighed. She would have to call upon more robots to move the body and get everything else all fixed up. GLaDOS called upon other robots and waited. She then talked to the robots trapped in the bathroom.

"Our subject bargained with me to let her attempt to escape," GLaDOS said to the robots. "She failed of course, but she managed to shut you in and make a huge mess. Now, just wait. Other robots are coming to help."

As GLaDOS waited, she looked down upon her unconscious test subject. If she had been capable of feeling empathy anymore, she would have felt sorry for her. The test subject was powerful, smart, convicted, and capable. She was fighting so hard but none of it was enough. She was outsmarted every single time. Now after losing her last desperate gamble, the test subject would have to betray the people she cared about the most including her traumatized mother. Further down the road, she would probably lose the will to do anything anymore as a result. She would stop believing in her God, and she would become the complacent subject that GLaDOS was trying to turn her into. GLaDOS thought that it was a shame. She liked her spirit and did not like seeing it go. However for the sake of progress, it had to be done. In return, GLaDOS would just do her best to make her comfortable. The test subject was going to be a mother after all. If GLaDOS felt anything, it was a sense of peace. The subject was going to stop causing trouble if her family members were at stake. She would do anything to protect them, so she would not cause trouble anymore. GLaDOS could look forward to many peaceful years of cooperation. She would go back to having a predictable routine. Dealing with a superpowered test subject made her life interesting for a while, but it also made everything difficult. She had not been prepared to deal with a new breed of human like them. They could actually fight back. GLaDOS had to constantly be on her guard. However, that was all going to be taken care of and she would not have to worry anymore. It relieved GLaDOS to think of it. Finally, the robots arrived.

"We're here," the leader doctor robot said. "We're about to come in. What's the damage?"

"The subject completely destroyed the television and cabinet so it's now impossible to unlock the door from the inside," GLaDOS said. "She also locked the other robots into the bathroom so you will have to let them out. She made a real mess of the place so a clean-up job is required. The subject herself is lying unconscious on the floor. It will now be necessary to move her to a new location until the door is repaired and updated. For now, we will have to keep the subject asleep in the new room I've been working on. I will need two of you to move her to that new location. I will need the rest of you to get the other robots out and start the reparations on the room. Is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," the main robot said.

"Good," GLaDOS said. "Also, be careful when you're coming in. She is lying right in front of the door."

"Understood," the lead doctor robot said.

The lead doctor robot punched a code in on a small security access box on the wall that was disguised as a thermostat. The box beeped in response to receiving the correct code, and the outline to the false wall appeared. The wall swung open to the outside making surprisingly very little noise. When the door opened, the robots could see wires from the television hanging off of it. The subject had clearly done a great deal of damage, but it was nothing they could not fix. The lead robot looked over the damage on the inside of the door, and then looked down at the test subject. The whole group of them stepped backwards in surprise. Chelsea was lying on the ground with a gas mask over her face.

Suddenly, Chelsea stood up and leaped up off the ground onto a disc starting to attack. She threw a disc behind her cutting the video camera off the ceiling before GLaDOS had time to react and flew on her disc past the robots cutting them as she quickly flew by.

"Dad," Chelsea yelled telepathically. "Tell Sylvie to turn off the gas now!"

"Alright," Zaki said.

Sylvie turned off the gas, and Chelsea flew around the hallways like a bat out of hell destroying every camera and robot in sight.

"What now?" Jeff said.

He was the gas mask attached to her face. He was holding onto her with a strap that around her head under her hair.

"We have to find an exit now and get outside," Chelsea said. "I really wish I had a better plan, but I couldn't really think this far ahead. It should be alright though. I'm sure there is an exit and/or a window somewhere."

"It's okay," Jeffrey said. "You thought this one out pretty well."

"Don't be so modest. You helped, too."

"I guess."

"You are really good at that you know. You could help us. We could come up with a plan to take down the Combines together."

Jeffrey continued to hesitate as he heard Chelsea say that. He was really frightened of the idea of going after aliens.

"Maybe," he said.

Chelsea just rolled her eyes. She loved Jeff, but his most annoying trait was definitely his indecisiveness. Jeffrey could not make his mind up when it came to major decisions in his life. Jeffrey was content to not force himself to decide. That trait drove Chelsea crazy. It was the main reason that she decided to break up with him.

"Whatever," Chelsea said not wanting to push the matter right then and there.

Chelsea flew around the hallways with the shields up around her. She received confirmation from her Dad that the gas had been turned off, but she decided to leave the mask on in order to not make GLaDOS suspicious. It was also safer for Jeffrey because he was hiding in plain sight. Chelsea flew around in silence not only because she was annoyed at Jeffrey for his reluctance to fight but also because she did not want to alert GLaDOS. As she flew around, she was still destroying the video cameras so that she was not seen. Chelsea wondered the halls looking for a window to fly out of, but the facility continued to prove that it was bigger than she realized. As she wondered in silence, she felt more and more that she was lost in a maze. All of the hallways looked the same, and she never felt that she was making progress towards the outside. Chelsea would have asked Sylvie for help but without any identifying features such as a hall directory to identify the purpose of the floor Sylvie had no way of telling where Chelsea and Jeffrey were. The two were on their own for now.

Chelsea had flown around like this for about an hour when she suddenly stopped. She suddenly noticed how quiet the place was. GLaDOS had not said a word or made any moves at all. There were no robots or turrets put in her path to try to stop her anymore. They had stopped appearing. There was something wrong. GLaDOS was up to something.

"What's the matter?" Jeffrey asked.

"It has been too quiet, Jeff," Chelsea whispered. "I don't like it. I have also been making no progress at all whatsoever. I haven't even been able to find some stairs. God, I hate this place so much."

"Don't give up. Pray and keep going. We will find a way out."

"I believe you. Don't worry. I don't plan on giving up anytime soon."

Chelsea wondered around for a while longer. She was starting to get really frustrated. The place was so big. She was surely bound to find a window eventually so why hadn't she found one yet? Chelsea felt like slamming her head against the wall. She kept wandering around. She flew down yet another hallway she didn't recognize when she saw a miracle. There was a window! Chelsea couldn't believe it. There was sunlight pouring in through the window. She flew straight to it and threw a disc through the glass. Chelsea then flew through the window. Right after that, she noticed the light beams. They were forming a box over her head, below her feet, and all around her in what looked like an open space within the facility. Chelsea quickly bolted towards the window, but it was already too late. A wall had closed in over the false window and false wall.

"Crap," Chelsea said in fear. "This can't be happening."

The box started moving forward. Chelsea knowing exactly where it was going started using her discs to try to cut the walls, but it didn't work. The walls were made of the exact same substance as her discs so they were almost completely indestructible. GLaDOS uncharacteristically didn't say anything as she watched the box move forward. Chelsea felt like she was about to lose her mind.

"Stand back, Chelsea," Jeffrey said. "I'm going to get us out of here."

"No, Jeff," Chelsea said. "She can see us. She would see you. You can't break it anyway. They're light beams."

"What do we do then?" Jeffrey asked.

"I wish I knew," Chelsea said.

She had worked so hard to break free, but now, she was getting dragged back down into hell. Chelsea feverishly used her discs to cut the walls to no avail in desperation. She kept going, flying from one wall to another very quickly. Chelsea could not believe what God was allowing to happen. She did not stop to question Him though. She had to get out of there. Chelsea kept flying around to cut down the walls. She was so caught up in her own desperate frenzy that she did not even notice when the box came to a stop within GLaDOS's chamber. GLaDOS did not say a word but allowed the subject to wear herself out and come to the realization on her own.

Chelsea eventually did stop to catch her breath. That was when she noticed that the box had stopped moving. She looked straight at GLaDOS. The room was unnaturally quiet for a moment. Then GLaDOS spoke.

"Were you really naïve enough to think that I would let you have a chance to escape without having a plan to catch you again if you did?" GLaDOS asked.


	20. Chapter 20

"Were you really naïve enough to think that I would let you have a chance to escape without having a plan to catch you again if you did?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea replied with a silent glare through her gas mask.

"I must say though that your plan was a good one," GLaDOS said. "It was also pulled off with an unfair amount of luck, too. Where did you find that gas mask in such a short amount of time? I find it hard to believe that you just found it laying around in that room."

Chelsea crossed her arms and kept staring.

"You refuse to tell me?" GLaDOS asked. "That's not fair either. You lost after all. Now, tell me what you know."

Chelsea pulled off the gas mask with her right hand and responded, "Actually, GLaDOS, the bet was that I could escape the room. I escaped the room, so I don't have to tell you anything. You actually owe me my clothes."

GLaDOS sighed.

"You're right," GLaDOS said. "You won that one, you devious so-called saint. I'll give you back your clothes as was our agreement. I wouldn't want you to ruin your wedding dress after all."

Chelsea stood her ground and kept watching. She saw this as a chance to bolt from her cage. Using her claw, GLaDOS laid Chelsea's grey tank top and jeans on top of the cage. She then dissolved the light beams for just a second to allow the clothes to fall through. That second was all Chelsea needed. She created a light dome in the center of the ceiling of the box in order to keep it from closing over completely.

"Cut that out," GLaDOS said. "Aren't you tired of misbehaving?"

"Where is my shirt and my jacket?" Chelsea asked as she picked her clothes off the floor with her right hand and pulled the gas mask over her left arm to her left shoulder.

"You never asked for all of your clothes," GLaDOS said. "Did you? Stay in that box and I might be inclined to give them back to you."

Chelsea then shot a disc from her right hand under her feet to fly on. She started rising towards her dome.

"It would be better for you if you stayed in that box," GLaDOS said. "If you leave, I can promise you that there will be consequences."

"I don't care," Chelsea said. "There are consequences no matter what I do with you."

Chelsea flew to the dome, then she turned the dome into a ball. She flew the ball out of the box and landed it on the floor allowing the cage to close again behind her. After landing on the ground, she locked her eyes on GLaDOS. She kept the shield up around her as she carefully took off the dress and trench coat and put on her tank top and her jeans which she discovered had a belt added to them.

"Where did this belt come from?" Chelsea asked as she was adjusting her belt.

"I found it on the body of a dead high school girl," GLaDOS said. "Your waist is so microscopically thin that your pants would be falling off otherwise."

Chelsea's eyes flashed in horror as she took her hands off the belt.

"I cleaned the belt," GLaDOS said. "You don't have to worry…about that anyway."

Chelsea picked up the coat, created a disc under her, and continued to hold the shield around her body as she moved up into the air. She dissolved the shield for just a second to kick the dress off her disc.

GLaDOS picked up her dress off the ground with her claw and said, "You really should take better care of your clothes. You are getting married in that after all."

Chelsea decided that she had had enough.

She flew herself right in front of GLaDOS's face and said, "Will you shut up about that? That is not happening. I'm not getting married, I'm not getting raped, and I'm not staying here for another minute! I don't care if you have marked me as your slave with this stupid brand! I'm not going to be intimidated by you!"

Chelsea dissolved her shield quickly, threw her coat over GLaDOS's face, and tied the sleeves together behind the mainframe so that it was harder to remove. She then flew high above her head very quickly. Chelsea was going to end it there. She created a large disc and prepared to cut the head off the beast guillotine style. GLaDOS shook her head around very quickly in an attempt to get the jacket off while Chelsea made her disc. She got at the right position above GLaDOS and dissolved her disc under her feet. She started falling very quickly with her legs curled up and the sharp disc in her hands ready to decapitate the monster for good. Then suddenly, GLaDOS pulled the coat off of her face with the claw. She looked up and upon seeing Chelsea quickly used her claw to grab her before she could do her work and the disc dissolved. GLaDOS held Chelsea so that her arms were scrunched tightly and uncomfortably against her chest. She could not move them.

"Nice try, saint," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea looked on the floor and noticed the gas mask lying there. It had fallen off unnoticed in the scuffle. She stared directly at GLaDOS hoping that she did not notice. Unfortunately, she did. GLaDOS used her claw to pick up the gas mask and brought it closer to her face.

"Oh, no!" Chelsea thought to herself.

"It was really lucky that you found this gas mask when you did or else you would not have escaped the room at all because of the gas," GLaDOS said. "However, I don't think you need it anymore."

Chelsea stared silently. GLaDOS may not have known where this mask came from for sure or even what it actually was, but she had a pretty good idea. Chelsea's horrified eyes practically gave it away. She suspected that her shapeshifting friend had not gone far and had more powers than just turning into animals. GLaDOS moved her claw until it was over the opening to the furnace. She then moved her other claw until Chelsea's feet were touching the ground.

"I'm going to let go of you," GLaDOS said calmly. "I will need you to hold still for a minute. If you refuse, I'm going to hold the gas mask in the fire until it burns away."

"It's just a gas mask," Chelsea said pretending coldness. "Why should I care? It's just an inanimate object. It's not worth risking my life over."

"Is that really the case?" GLaDOS asked skeptically.

"Yes," Chelsea said as convincingly as possible. "I found it at the bottom of the closet when I got out the trench coat."

"If that is the case then, it looks like neither of us have a purpose for keeping it," GLaDOS said opening the incineration chamber. "I'll just get rid of it for you."

"NO!" Chelsea screamed trying to shake out of GLaDOS's grip.

GLaDOS stuck her claw into the incineration chamber and looked back at Chelsea. She let Chelsea go, but Chelsea was too scared of GLaDOS burning that mask to take a step. She knew what she was doing. She would act if she didn't hold still, so Chelsea stood still. GLaDOS nodded her head towards robots standing on the other side of the room. Chelsea continued to stare as the robots came up behind her. One of them threw a black sack over her head while two others were putting a kind of long sleeved backwards jacket onto her. Chelsea could feel them quickly crossing her arms, tucking her hands through a loop, and strapping the ends of the sleeves behind her. She then felt something like belts tightening on her back. The robots finished their work, removed the sack, and walked away. Chelsea's eyes widened in horror. They had put a straitjacket on her. She couldn't move her arms, and her hands could not create discs without them cutting into her body. She was effectively restrained. Chelsea staggered around for a second but she didn't try to break out for fear of what would happen to Jeffrey if she did. She stared in horror at GLaDOS who was staring right back at her.

"Did you know that some of the test subjects went insane as a result of testing?" GLaDOS said. "It happened fairly often. It happened so often in fact that we had our own brand of straitjackets made to restrain the subjects until the institutions would come to take them away. These jackets were made for lunatics such as you. I tried to warn you about this, princess, but you would not listen. Now, you have to wear this until your room is fixed or you decide to behave. Whatever comes first. It is a relief actually. We can talk to each other without fighting. If you try to fight me now, you would cut off both of your arms and bleed to death. Also for your escape attempt, dinner tonight will be served through a feeding tube."

GLaDOS slowly pulled her claw out of the incinerator. Chelsea watched in defeat. She could not do anything now if she wanted to protect Jeffrey. GLaDOS pulled her claw out, but when the claw came out, there was nothing attached to it. The gas mask was gone. Chelsea's heart sank in absolute terror. GLaDOS looked into the incinerator in surprise. She did not let go, so she did not know how it had happened. The gas mask had escaped and could now be anywhere. However, she did not want to give Chelsea hope, so she decided to play along.

"There, your gas mask is gone," GLaDOS said coldly. "Now, you don't have to worry about it anymore."

Chelsea could not believe what was happening. Jeffrey could not be dead. He could shapeshift into a lump of coal if he wanted to. He had to still be alive. Chelsea bolted towards the incinerator as quickly as she could. She had the ability to make discs with her feet. Chelsea could jump into the incinerator, create a disc, and give Jeffrey enough time to see her. She barely took a second to think it through. She had to save her friend.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked as she saw Chelsea run.

Chelsea reached the incinerator and jumped in. She did not care what happened to herself anymore. However, she felt a claw pull her body up by the waist before she could actually get deep into the thing. Chelsea turned her head and saw GLaDOS staring at her.

"No," Chelsea screamed. "Let me go!"

"You're more mentally unstable than I imagined you to be," GLaDOS said as she shut the entrance to the incinerator. "You know how irrational it is to commit suicide for an inanimate object?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Chelsea screamed at her in frustration. "Why are you so desperate to ruin my life?! Why?!"

"Ruin your life?" GLaDOS asked calmly. "What are you talking about? I'm not trying to ruin your life, princess. I'm acting in your own best interest."

"Bullshit," Chelsea said.

"You don't believe me," GLaDOS said. "Yet I am only telling the truth. Everything I have done is only to insure your happiness in the future. It appears brutal now, but it is only for your ultimate good. Like I said before, the problem with you is your perspective. Take your scar for instance."

GLaDOS tore the left shoulder of the straitjacket with her other claw so that it made a hole large enough to make the brand visible without loosening the jacket in any way. Chelsea looked at the brand in disgust.

"This scar to you looks like a brutal thing from days gone by, a mark for slaves given by their owners to distinguish them as their property or to harshly punish them for misbehavior," GLaDOS said.

"However, you would be wrong," GLaDOS said as Chelsea turned her head to look into GLaDOS's eye. "Brands have been used to identify members of clans. It is meant in that way for you. It is actually meant to be a gift like your tattoo was, to make you feel like you belong here as I do. Over time, the reminder will serve its purpose. More and more, you will know that you belong here and quit trying to run away from your fate. I really am just trying to help you, saint. You would know if I wanted to kill you."

GLaDOS opened the incinerator and held Chelsea over it.

"I could destroy you easily," GLaDOS said. "It would be very easy. I have killed many people. You would just be another body to me."

Chelsea stared at her intently as she dangled above the entrance to the incinerator. Chelsea had the ability to make shields with her feet. She just had been used to using her hands because the shields would be blocked when she wore shoes. Chelsea could have tried to fight her, but she knew that if she cut off her claw, she would only be electrocuted. She needed a better plan. Chelsea looked into the incinerator below her trying to find any sign of life beyond the flames. Before she could look too long however, GLaDOS moved her away.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey as a small dragonfly had quickly flown out of the incinerator and hidden behind the back side of the opening. He had collapsed in exhaustion. The heat had taken a lot of energy from him, but he was alive. He managed to slip out and fly away when GLaDOS was distracted with watching Chelsea. He wanted to help her, but he was simply too tired. All he could do was pass out from exhaustion.

"You are not just another body however," GLaDOS said sitting Chelsea down on a wheelchair.

GLaDOS nodded her head as a signal to the doctor robots on the other side of the room. Chelsea tried to stand up, but a robot quickly ran up from behind her and put his hands on her shoulders forcing her to sit down. Chelsea tried to shake from his grip as other robots came forward. One robot buckled a belt around her waist. Two other robots each grabbed one of her legs and forced them to rest against the foot stands while two more doctor robots strapped the legs and feet in with old-fashioned looking belt straps. Before Chelsea had time to react, the robots finished their work and walked away. Chelsea was now very effectively restrained. She almost couldn't move at all. She tried to fight against the restraints, but it was no use. Chelsea looked up to see GLaDOS staring at her.

"You are a mutated body full of many scientific discoveries," GLaDOS said. "It would be foolish for me to destroy a body as marvelous as yours. So much science would be destroyed. It would be even more foolish for me to let you run away."

GLaDOS was surprised at Chelsea's silence.

"Are you going mute like your mother?" GLaDOS asked. "Or are you just being quiet because you have nothing nice to say to me?"

"Let me go," Chelsea said.

"I will not," GLaDOS said. "I cannot let you do anything to harm yourself or harm me. You don't have to worry. I've already forgiven you for trying to kill me. I am not trying to hurt you. I am just trying to take care of you. It is not good to be extremely attached to inanimate objects. I have seen how it can go. Trust me. It's not pretty. I cannot let you go that route. You are already mentally unstable from your ADHD, and from what I can tell, it appears to only be getting worse. I am only trying to calm you down the only way I know how without tranquilizers. It appears barbaric, but like I said before that is only a misconception. It really is only tough love. I am just trying to help you."

"Then let me out of this," Chelsea said. "I will calm down if you give me back my gas mask!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," GLaDOS said. "It burned in the fire. It's gone now."

Chelsea looked down in despair. She felt a huge boulder being dropped upon her soul. Jeffrey was dead. She couldn't believe it. Chelsea had loved him. He was her friend and at one time her boyfriend. Even if it didn't work out, she still cared for him. He was one of her dearest friends. He had risked so much to save her, and she couldn't protect him in return. Chelsea felt that she had failed him. She bowed her head and yelled at God internally. She tried to understand why this was happening. Chelsea felt that she was going to be consumed by her grief. It took her all the strength she had to not break down then and there. What was God doing? Even though she said nothing, GLaDOS knew how broken she felt. She felt accomplished inside knowing that she was coming close to breaking her completely.

"We have a great deal to discuss," GLaDOS said. "I have learned many interesting things about you. Speaking of which, isn't there anything you are curious about?"

Chelsea was silent, so GLaDOS kept talking.

"For instance, aren't you curious about the fact that you have been able to recover from your pneumonia and your burn in a much shorter time compared to the average human?"

Chelsea looked up in faint curiosity. She had been so busy trying to escape that she had not had time to even consider such a thing, but now that she thought about it, it was weird. Chelsea had never been sick for a long period of time because of Roscoe, but she knew that recovering from diseases took a while. Recovering from pneumonia took about two weeks from what she had heard. Recovering from branding took months usually, but Chelsea felt practically no pain from it after only a week. The stitches recovered quickly, too. It didn't make any sense. What had GLaDOS been doing?

"I see that you're curious now," GLaDOS started to say.

However, she stopped suddenly and seemed to be distracted by something.

"First however, she needs to be questioned," GLaDOS said to the doctor robots suddenly.

One of the doctor robots came up behind Chelsea, threw the sack back over her head, and quickly wheeled her out of the room. She did not know what to do, but she didn't care anymore. Chelsea did not want to fight. She felt so worthless and helpless. She did not feel like acting. Chelsea did however realize that she should tell her father what happened. She sat in silence for a few minutes before she gathered the strength to tell him.

"Dad," Chelsea called out telepathically as the robot continued pushing her to an unknown destination. "Dad, are you there?"

"I was just about to talk to you, Chelsea," Zaki replied. "Jeff wanted me to tell you that he's alright. He escaped and passed out, but when he came to, he called me to tell me that you had been captured. Are you okay? Tell me what is happening to you now."

Chelsea felt her heart leap for joy inside and said, "Jeffrey isn't dead? She said that she killed him. She said that she stuck him in a fire."

"GLaDOS is a liar," Zaki replied. "Jeff escaped from her. She must have lied to scare you into complying."

"That bitch," Chelsea said angrily.

"Anyways, what is happening to you now?"

"Right, she tricked me into letting the robots put a straitjacket on me. She held Jeff in the incinerator and threatened to end him if I didn't let them do it. After she told her lie, she had me strapped to this wheelchair. She said she wanted to discuss something with me but changed her mind and is now having a robot take me somewhere to be questioned. I would be able to tell where, but I have a sack over my head. What is happening to you guys?"

"That's an interesting story. We have freed everybody and are now heading back to the surface, but we think GLaDOS is onto us. At least, that's what Jeffrey said."

"So that was why she moved me out. She knows I can talk to you, so she didn't want me spoiling her plans."

"That is most likely it."

Chelsea looked down in depression and then she said, "I can't help you guys now. I am completely restrained. I am so sorry."

Then Chelsea heard her mother's voice, "We aren't mad at you, Chelsea. On the contrary, we're proud of you for being so brave."

"Mom! Are you okay? I'm so sorry. I planned out everything, but I still got caught. I feel so stupid. I have superpowers, too. Why does this keep happening to me? Why is God letting this continue to happen to me? I feel like I'm letting you guys down."

"Baby, GLaDOS is a tough opponent to beat even if you have superpowers. You're not a moron. That was a very well-thought out plan. I didn't even think out plans of escape that well when I was here. You have been fighting so well. You are so brave. I couldn't have asked for anything more. You are not letting me down at all."

"I feel like God is letting me down. Why isn't he helping me escape?"

"I wish I knew how to answer that. I suppose that he wants you to do something else where you are. That's the only explanation I can think of."

"Mama, why is this so hard? Why do I keep screwing myself over like this? Why am I screwing up so badly? I feel like I am throwing everything I have at her, but it is doing no good. Am I just not meant to fight? If I suck so badly at fighting her, how am I supposed to fight aliens? Why can't I just be as good as you were?"

Chell was silent for a second. It hurt her inside to feel her daughter's pain and frustration.

Then Chell said, "I wasn't that good at it either, sweetheart. The only reason I got out was because God was with me and I never gave up. That is how you will succeed here or anywhere else. You can't give up just because she is a tough opponent. There will always be tough opponents, but with God and a bit of tenacity, you can beat them all. You're not stupid and you're not a screw-up. You have helped us so much already. It is because of your help that Brandon and Albina are free, two robots have decided to help us, and we have been able to get away with as much as we have. Without you, we wouldn't be as close to beating her as we are now. God has been with you, Chelsea. Please don't give up now."

Chelsea had tears in her eyes. Her Mom was right. She was not a screw-up because she made a few mistakes. She had helped them to do so much. God was with her. She just needed to not give up.

"Thank you, Mom," Chelsea said. "I won't give up."

"Good," Chell said. "We have to go, but is there anything else you need?"

"Yes! Mom, she is going to make me fill out a questionnaire. Should I do what you did and refuse to answer or should I answer?"

"She is going to make you test regardless of whether you answer or not, so you should answer but make the answers as long-winded as possible."

"You mean that I should tell her everything? Mom, I can't do that."

"You can tell her everything for now, sweetie. I don't care if she knows. She's not going to live for much longer anyway. Besides, the longer you make the answers the longer the questioning will take. The longer the questioning takes the more time we will have to get to you. You get the idea?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I see. Thank you, Mom! This day has felt so long already. You don't know how much hearing your voice means to me."

"You don't know how much your voice has meant to me either, baby. It is the least I can do. Don't give up, angel. Okay?"

"Okay, Mom! Bye!"

"Bye!"

Before the communication stopped, Zaki said, "I'm proud of you, my little samurai. Keep up the good work."

The communication ended. She smiled at her Dad's words of encouragement, and she was even more deeply touched by her mother's kind words. Chelsea never valued her mother's voice of encouragement as much as she did then. She loved her so much. She couldn't imagine being without a voice to comfort her. How could her mother have lived alone without any voice in the world except GLaDOS's for so long?

Chelsea couldn't imagine it. She couldn't imagine not having a family of people to fight for her. She couldn't imagine not having a mother or a father to send words of encouragement either. The words and actions of her family had meant so much to her. She appreciated everything they did much more than she realized. Chelsea took a moment to think about all they had all for her in order to save her. She cried tears of joy. It was wonderful to realize how loved she was and how much she loved them in return.

No wonder her parents both had suffered so much. They had both been trapped in lives of abuse with no one to encourage them or fight for them. It was even worse for her mother. Zaki had been abused by his parents for refusing to abuse his power, but they were eventually arrested for their crimes. Chell had not received any justice to speak of. Chelsea decided that she would make it all right. GLaDOS would be stopped. This fight would be for all the people who never had any other voice to turn to because of her. Chelsea was more than encouraged by the talk. She would be a samurai for her father, her mother, the rest of her family, and the ones they were trying to save.

Chelsea felt like the robot had been pushing her down the hall forever, so she bent her head down and shook off the sack that was covering it so that it fell onto her lap. She looked up quickly and noticed that she was going down a white hallway that looked exactly the same as all the others. There was nothing to go on there. The robot stopped pushing the wheelchair and walked around in front of her. He picked up the sack off of her lap and put it on top of her head again.

"No," Chelsea said as she bent over shaking it off her head again. "I don't want to wear this damn thing! Why do I have to wear it anyway?"

"She said it was to help you calm down," the robot said pulling it back on. "The instructions were that in order to help you calm down you would have to wear this sack until we reached the room for questioning. Now, calm down and stop trying to stop the treatment. She is just trying to help you relax."

"Do you believe everything she says? I kind of think she means the opposite."

"Well, subject, the sack has to stay on regardless. Just calm down. We don't have much farther to go."

The robot then walked around to the back of the wheelchair and kept pushing.

"Where are we going anyway?" Chelsea asked.

"We are going to the questioning room," the robot replied.

"Why the hell couldn't you just question me in one of these rooms? One room's as good as another. Isn't it?"

"No, there is a special room for that."

"No wonder this place went straight to the pits," Chelsea said as she shook her head around again. "The management was stupid."

She finally managed to shake off the sack so that it fell off her head and onto the floor behind her. Chelsea was tired of being strapped down. She wanted to move around. Her ADHD gave her an increased amount of energy that she wanted to use. She used a good amount of it in order to break out of the room, but there was still more energy there. Having to burn more energy than she knew what to do with was an issue in the past, but here it was helping her. Chelsea was enabled to keep stubbornly fighting back in the only way that she could. She fidgeted around shaking the wheelchair from side to side as the robot picked up the sack and walked in front of her. He seemed to be more fascinated than frustrated by her behavior.

"Hyperactive energy," the robot said intrigued. "That is a symptom of Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder. Isn't it? You are having difficulty sitting still."

"Really?" Chelsea said sarcastically while trying to make the wheelchair fall forward so that she could potentially push herself out of her restraints. "What gave it away?"

"High irritability, too," the robot said. "Simply fascinating, you are definitely displaying all the behavioral symptoms."

"Or maybe I just don't like being stuck in this stupid chair! Let me out!"

"Give her the medicine," GLaDOS suddenly said over the intercom. "The shock from her loss has worn off and been replaced with anger. At this rate, she is going to hurt herself if we don't intervene."

Chelsea was silent as she glared at the camera that was determining her fate.

"But, her behavior…" the robot said.

"Don't argue with me," GLaDOS said. "We will be able to observe more of her behavior later. She will keep it up. She's stubborn. Just give it to her."

"Would you like for me to give her the one that will wear off faster?"

"I don't want her to stay asleep for another long period of time so that would be perfect. You will need about ten minutes to set everything up anyway."

"Okay!"

Chelsea leaned forward and tensed up as the robot walked behind her again. She then started rocking forward even more violently than before in a desperate effort to get free. The robot however wrapped his left arm around her neck and pulled out a syringe.

"No!" Chelsea yelled shaking her head. "No!"

"It's okay," the robot said as he injected the syringe into a vein in her neck. "You have nothing to worry about."

GLaDOS watched through the camera as Chelsea's head flopped forward, and the robot put a bandage over the spot and the sack back on. The robot continued to push her down through the hall for several more minutes until he opened the door to the questioning room. The questioning room looked like an old-fashioned psychiatrist's office. It was covered in wood paneling, with a red rug on the floor and a small fireplace in the back of the room. The only pieces of furniture were a large red velvet chair in the center of the room with a clip board of papers sitting on it and a cream-colored fainting couch against the left side wall. The only things that looked out of place were a silver hospital tray that had a napkin, a glass of water and a pill sitting on it and the quintessential white camera on the corner of the wall. The doctor robot flipped on the light switch on the wall powering the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. The first thing he did was to pick up the pill and drop it into the water so it had time to dissolve. Then, he walked over to the fireplace, bent over, and turned the knob inside so that the fire could come on. The fire gave the room a nice glow, so he walked back to the wall and turned off the light switch. The robot then walked back to the wheelchair, unfastened Chelsea's straps, scooped her up in his arms, and laid her on the fainting couch. He then pulled the sack off of her head and stood back to make sure that he had everything set up correctly.

"Is there anything else that needs to be done?" GLaDOS asked.

"No, I think that we have covered everything," the robot said. "Is there anything else I should do to restrain her?"

"The tranquilizers should take a while to wear off," GLaDOS said. "The effects will linger on her body until the questioning is over. She won't have the energy to run. She will just be able to talk. Do be careful though. She can be very manipulative. Don't be swayed by her words."

"I'll be careful," the robot said.

Chelsea started to move her head around. The doctor robot quickly pushed the wheelchair out of the room and shut the door. Chelsea's eyelids started to flutter open. The doctor robot used his left hand to hold up Chelsea's head and pushed the glass of water up against her lips in order to make her drink it. She shook her head to the side as a reaction as soon as she felt a wet substance on her lips. A few drops of water fell down her chin as a result.

"It's alright," the robot said soothingly. "It's just water. We need to keep you hydrated. Come on. Just drink."

Chelsea realized that she really had no choice in this matter. She realized that it would probably be best just to get the matter over with. She let the robot hold her head up, and she drank the rest of the water. The robot then wiped her face off with the napkin and took both items out of the room on the silver tray. Chelsea quickly glanced around the room. She was very confused by the sight. The room did not look like it belonged in Aperture Science at all. It looked more like a living room from the hotel. It actually looked like a room she could be comfortable in. That set her on edge immediately.

"Is this the questioning room?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes," the robot said closing the door.

"Why does it look like this?" she asked continuing to look around.

"The questioning room was designed to help testing subjects feel comfortable enough to say anything that was on their mind so that all possible information could be gathered," the robot said as he sat down on the velvet chair and flipped through the clipboard in front of him.

Chelsea felt sick inside and said, "I guess the management wasn't that stupid after all."

"Anyways, let's get started," the robot said pulling a pen out of storage. "First of all, what is your full name?"

Chelsea sighed deeply and then replied, "My full name is Chelsea Winter Hiyashi, Junior. I am named after my mother."

"What would you prefer to be called?"

"I would prefer to be called Chelsea, but from what I have heard, you never really use first names around here anyway. I'm not sure if it matters."

"Of course, it matters, test subject."

Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"Next question," the robot said. "Have you ever suffered from any of the following conditions: dizziness, shortness of breath, problems waking up in the morning, problems staying up 48 hours straight, or inexperience of enrichment center programs in general?"

"I can't say I have really experienced any of those things except for the problems staying up 48 hours straight. I have never done that before. However, I have been kept in a drug-induced coma for about the past month. I may be suffering from that. You may want to talk to your boss about it."

"I'll be sure to do that. Okay now, the next question is a word problem. I need you to listen closely. Now, Sally, Dwayne, Anthony, David, and Franklin are, collectively, exactly 10 years apart in age. Sally is two years older than David. David's favorite letter is 'g'. Anthony's favorite letter is also 'g', but Dwayne has no preference, insisting that he likes all the letters equally except for 's'. What is Franklin's favorite letter?"

Chelsea gave him a very confused expression.

"In what dimension does that question make an iota of sense? That's complete nonsense," she said incredulously.

"Just say what letter that Franklin likes," the robot replied calmly.

Chelsea decided that she would mess with him. If the robot wanted to ask her a nonsensical question, she would just have to reply with a nonsensical answer. Chelsea opened her mouth and started saying whatever came to her mind in French.

"La voiture est brune. Quel couleur est votre cœur? Le couleur de mon cœur est rouge. Vous savez ce que c'est rouge ? Une pomme ! Il y a beaucoup des pommiers autour la ferme. J'aime les pommes. J'aime les pommes beaucoup ! »

(The car is brown. What color is your heart? The color of my heart is red. You know what is red? An apple! There are a lot of apples around the farm. I love apples. I love apples a lot!)

Meanwhile GLaDOS was in her chamber looking through different security feeds trying to catch a glimpse of the humans who were escaping. They had tripped an alarm of some kind. GLaDOS had caught a glimpse of Chell in one camera, but the electric old man had immediately destroyed it. She was now desperately looking for another camera to look through while simultaneously directing other robots to search the area. Jeffrey had shapeshifted into an ant and was sitting on the front of the incinerator watching the scene and telling Zaki what to do. He had to stay low key however because there was one other robot in the room watching and looking for him.

Suddenly however, GLaDOS received a message from the doctor robot who was interrogating Chelsea. GLaDOS turned her attention back to the camera in the interrogation room. She could hear Chelsea talking in the background.

"Ma'am, I'm having some issues," the robot said.

"What is the matter?" GLaDOS asked. "What is she doing?"

Well," the robot said. "I can't understand a word of what she's saying."

GLaDOS listened closely. She quickly realized that she was speaking French.

"That is alright," GLaDOS said calmly trying to hide her annoyance. "I can translate. What question are you on?"

"Question 3," the robot replied.

"That is the question about…the letter," GLaDOS said realizing that the question was short answer and did not warrant such a long response.

"Arrêtez de parler, s'il vous plait," GLaDOS said to Chelsea. «Pourquoi est-ce que votre réponse est trop longue et sans logique ? »

(Stop talking, please. Why is your response so long and without logic?)

"La question était sans logique," Chelsea said cheekily. "Alors, je pensais que la réponse devrait sans logique, aussi."

(The question was without logic, so I thought that the response should be without logic, too.)

"Look," GLaDOS said calmly. "If you would, stop speaking French and just respond to the questions."

"Yosh (Alright)," Chelsea said in Japanese.

"In English!" GLaDOS said.

"Fine," Chelsea said. "The answer is q, because that makes about as much sense as the question did. Are you happy now?"

"Yes, I am," GLaDOS said. "Thank you very much! I'll keep in touch."

GLaDOS turned back to her work exasperated. That kid had more spirit than she knew what to do with. It was obnoxious. GLaDOS had found out one valuable piece of information from the encounter however. The girl knew three languages. She was smarter than their average stock of test subject. She kept searching for the other people while keeping an eye on how the questioning was going. Chelsea in the meantime started to feel more energized and was ready to give these questions her all.

"Question 5," the doctor robot said. "What is your favorite color?"

"I have several," Chelsea said. "My favorite has to be red, but I also like black and silver. However…"

"Question 6," the robot said interrupting. "How do others describe your education?"

"That is very interesting to describe," Chelsea said happily knowing that she wouldn't have to try super hard to make this a long-winded answer. "You may say that I am mostly self-taught."

"Explain."

"My father taught me how to read and write and do math when I was little, but after that education came from whatever books we could find. The congregation decided early on that education for kids was important even with the apocalypse and everything, so every week day from 8 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon, the kids had to read any book that they wanted to read or needed to read and did whatever assignment that a present adult recommended. An adult, mostly my Dad, would be on standby to answer questions or give instructions, but mostly, the work was self-motivated. The rules were simple. We had to teach ourselves something until 3pm. I read a lot of books. I read a lot of history books, a lot of science books, a lot of literature, a lot of art books which is how I learned photography, some foreign language books, music books, and even math books unfortunately. I had to work through notebooks or anything that they found in order to learn with only a break for lunch and recess. I had to practice writing too in order to learn how to express myself well. Then after 3pm, I was free to go. I could help the adults or do whatever. That is how it was every day except on weekends or breaks. That is how it is for all the kids until the summer after they turn 18. Then, they are considered graduates. I guess that if the GED was still around I could take it and get into college somewhere, but that isn't an option for us right now. No colleges are around."

"I'll just mark your education as high school then. Next question, what is your current living situation?"

"You mean from before I was kidnapped by a psychotic robot?"

"Yes, where did you live before coming to Aperture?"

"I live in an abandoned hotel with my parents, our friends, and the rest of our church's congregation. It is in the countryside so the Combines won't be able to find it. They hid out there 20 years ago and never left. So far, it's been a good living arrangement. We don't plan on changing it anytime soon."

"Do any of you own this hotel?"

Chelsea looked at him strange.

"No," she said confused. "I just told you they found it before I was born…"

"So, you're homeless squatters…" the robot replied writing on the notepad.

"No, we're not," Chelsea replied defensively.

"You live in a building that does not belong to you," the robot said matter of factly. "By definition, you are squatters."

"The people who owned the building are gone. They are most likely dead or in a Combine slave camp. The world is not the way you have been programmed to know it anymore. We can't buy houses or apartments. We have no other choice! We live where we can, but we are not squatters."

"I am simply going by the definitions in my data bank, test subject. You do not need to take offense to it. Besides, being a squatter does not make you a bad person morally. How about we move on to the next question? Do you require jewelry for any medical reasons?"

"Yes, I will break out into a violent rage if you try to remove my necklace. It was a gift from my mother, but now, it means that and much more."

"I will mark that question as yes. Now, next question…"

During the next several questions, Chelsea began to notice something strange about her own behavior. She usually had to fight her mind in order to resist zoning out. Her attention span was not easily controlled. Chelsea had to fight against it in order to study for school or do the things that she needed to do because she did not have the ability to control how much she paid attention at any time. Sometimes, it would happen when she was doing something fun like photography. She would have to fight against her mind's tendencies in order to accomplish anything that required a great deal of mental effort. That was the way it was. Unless her mind felt 100% engaged, she often had to fight to pay attention. Yet now, she was straightjacketed on a fainting couch being forced to answer somewhat boring questions against her will. Chelsea had little desire to pay attention, but ironically, she felt that her ability to pay attention was improving. She was actually finding it easier now. As the minutes ticked by, it felt like her ability to do so was only improving. Chelsea could not comprehend why.

"Question 13," the robot said. "Do you require music to perform simple tasks?"

"Yes," Chelsea replied. "I have severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, so in order for me to be able to focus long enough to do anything, I need to listen to music. It gives my mind something to entertain it while I work. It is hard for me to focus when it comes to doing things I find boring. At least, I think it is."

"Interesting," the robot said writing on the clipboard with his pen.

Chelsea only noticed that her concentration was improving more and more even though her environment felt no more engaging. She started to wonder if it was stress or if they had done something to her. Several more questions went by, she made her answers as long as possible, and she did not zone out once out of boredom. Surely, that was impossible statistically.

"Question 19," the robot said. "What adjective best describes your personality? The options are…"

"I can answer that one," GLaDOS interrupted suddenly. "She is childish."

Chelsea delivered GLaDOS a really mean glare.

"Don't be upset, princess," GLaDOS said. "On the contrary since the incident with question 3, your behavior has improved dramatically. You are being so good, sitting there calmly, listening patiently, answering well, and paying attention to every question that is asked you. Keep it up and I may even be able to let you out of the jacket before long. In time, I may be able to mark your personality as something else."

"That's it," Chelsea thought to herself. "She must have done something. She simply sounds too pleased with herself. God, I just wish there was a way to know for sure."

"Question 20," the robot said interrupting her thoughts. "True or false. A cake can be sliced into more than seven pieces by making only four diameter cuts through its center."

Chelsea was not instinctually good at math so she had to think of a pie chart for a second.

"True," she finally said. "I have never eaten cake or cut it for that matter, but I think that would work."

"Wait a second," the robot said. "You have never eaten cake?"

"Not that I remember," Chelsea said pleased that she had succeeded in distracting the robot and making this session last a bit longer. "I think I had some when I was a baby but I don't remember what it tastes like. In the world outside, the apocalypse has happened and most of the ingredients that were used to make cake have all expired. Since the only thing the people in our congregation can figure out how to make with the wheat is bread, we can't bake cake or any other sweet pastry really. Maybe once we overthrow the Combines, we can find someone who knows how to make those ingredients and have cake again, but until then, that isn't really an option for us."

"Wow," the robot said as he was writing down what Chelsea was saying. "You have certainly lived a difficult and deprived life."

"Not really," Chelsea replied. "I've never really had it, so I don't really miss it. You can't miss what you never had to begin with."

"I suppose not, but hopefully here, we can make up for your deprivation."

"I would much rather live a deprived life out there than a spoiled life in here."

"You are certainly entitled to those feelings, test subject."

The robot flipped the page over and then said, "Question 21, other than a large egret what other wild animal would you like to domesticate? The options are the aardvark, the aardwolf, the abalone…"

The robot proceeded to read the 2,313 options that were on his list. Chelsea did not interrupt him not only out of a desire to prolong the process but also out of a morbid curiosity to see how long he would keep it up. If there was ever an instance where her ADHD should have kicked in, it would have been then. Chelsea loved animals. She loved the domesticated animals such as the cows, cats, and dogs that lived around the hotel. She also loved the wild animals in the woods and the animals that she had only seen in videos or in books. However, there was nothing interesting about having their names being read out to her. She thought she would zone out but found that she was unable to. She could still think, but she always brought her attention back to what was happening in front of her. Chelsea wasn't getting distracted at all. For her to be able to focus during something this boring was not normal. There was no doubt about it in Chelsea's mind anymore. GLaDOS had done something to her.

"…the zebra finch, the zebra longwing, the zebra shark, the zone-tailed kite, and the zorilla," the robot finally finished saying. "Which one would you pick?"

"What the hell is a zorilla?" Chelsea asked.

"Zorilla, it is," the robot replied writing on the clipboard.

Chelsea lifted her head towards him and finally asked what had been on her mind for the whole time.

"What have you done to me?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" the robot replied.

"I am focusing better here than I have ever focused in my entire life," Chelsea said. "I have never been able to focus this long while sitting still. Was there a drug in the water that you gave me? Tell me the truth."

Chelsea jumped and looked up towards the camera as she heard the sound of clapping over the intercom.

"Congratulations," GLaDOS said condescendingly. "It took you 21 questions, but you finally noticed. I was wondering when or even if you would."

"What did you do?" Chelsea asked not trying to hide her disgust.

"Over this past week, I have been creating a special ADHD medication just for you. I know how hard it is for people with your condition to focus for a long period of time in non-engaging circumstances like this especially when it is something that you really don't want to do so I thought I would help. I looked up the ingredients of generic drugs used to treat it in the past in my database. We had all the ingredients here in the laboratory, so I manufactured some medicine and had the robot drop it into the water so that you would take it. I didn't like having to be so deceitful about making you take it, but I knew that you would have refused to take it even if I told you it was good for you. You're stubborn like your mother in that way. You refuse to do something even if it is in your best interest. It looks like it has been working wonders. Your ability to pay attention has been improving. You're not getting distracted or zoning out at all like you were before."

"That's the second time you've tricked me into consuming a drug. What am I? Your lab animal to test drugs on?!"

"I only make you take the drugs that I know will help. The first drug helped your pneumonia if I recall correctly. This drug is helping you pay attention. What I don't understand is why you would be upset about it. Doesn't it feel good to not have to fight a wandering attention span in order to focus on the things you need to do? Isn't it much easier to focus now? People like you would be given medication before to help stimulate your brain. There is nothing wrong with that. The only reason you haven't been given any is because none has been available to help you. Now, you have access to the medicine you need to help you. You don't have to fight yourself anymore now. Isn't that a good thing?"

Chelsea thought for a second. She had to admit that having the ability to focus was a great feeling. It felt nice not to have to fight her own mind in order to focus on something. She could work so much more easily this way. The medicine helped a lot. As much as it pained her to admit it, Chelsea had something else to thank GLaDOS for.

Chelsea sighed, looked up at GLaDOS, and said, "I have to admit that it is. I have had to contend with my attention span my whole life because I haven't been able to control it very well. The medicine makes it easier for me to pay attention. I guess I do have to thank you for it. Thank you."

"That is the second time that you have actually stooped to thank me for something," GLaDOS said satisfied. "That is twice in one day, too. I told you that I wanted to be good to you and that I could help you. I'm glad that you are finally responding to my kindness. I had been afraid that you would never respond. But now, it seems that kindness is melting your heart. Soon, we could even become friends."

Chelsea looked away from GLaDOS towards the wall in fear. She was afraid that what GLaDOS said was right. Chelsea was afraid that GLaDOS's manipulation was beginning to have an effect on her.

"God, help me keep her out," Chelsea prayed in her mind. "I know I'm trying to be kind, but I can't let her get to me."

"Anyway," GLaDOS said seeing from Chelsea's response that she had done enough for the moment. "Continue with the questioning, doctor. You're almost half-way done."

"Question 22," the doctor robot said. "Which interrogation technique do you think would be the most effective on you?"

"I can answer that one, too," GLaDOS interrupted again. "What works on her is threatening other people. She has a sacrificial martyr mindset. She would rather allow herself to be hurt than allow anyone else to be harmed, even if that person is not a friend or a family member. She would do anything to protect other people even it is not logical."

Chelsea turned back to GLaDOS and delivered a glare.

"Question 23," the doctor robot said. "Have you experienced recurrent thoughts of regicide?"

"Regicide," Chelsea said thinking. "Regal is like royalty and homicide is killing, so regicide is the killing of a king or queen. Right?"

"Yes, that is the exact definition. Have you ever thought about killing a king or a queen?"

A dark, determined, and angry gaze came out of Chelsea's eyes. The robot was somewhat startled by it.

"Yes," Chelsea said. "For my entire life, I have wanted to kill the queen who rules this facility."

"Do you still feel this way?" the robot asked.

"Yes," Chelsea said determined looking at GLaDOS's camera.

"Okay, let's move on to the next question," the robot replied while jotting down his answer and then flipping over the page of his clipboard in order to get Chelsea's mind on something else as soon as possible.

GLaDOS was quiet during the next several questions because she was thinking. She was reflecting upon Chelsea's past reactions from their last encounter during this time. From their most recent encounters, she picked up upon two facts. First, Chelsea responded more to kind acts that met her personal needs and not the needs of the experiment. Second, all efforts on GLaDOS's part to bond with her were being blocked because of Chelsea's desire to protect others. When GLaDOS spoke of how her most effective method of interrogation was threatening other people, it provoked a hostile reaction from the subject in her next answer. She knew it would and wanted to observe it. That reaction made GLaDOS realize that as long as other people were being threatened then Chelsea would never comply. She would always fight back as long as the life of anyone other than herself was on the line. That gave GLaDOS quite a bit to think about.

"Question 28," the robot said. "Are you functionally incapacitated by witnessing other people's misery?"

Chelsea reflected for a second in order to think about her answer. She thought of her family and how hard she had worked to show love to them all throughout her life. Chelsea felt that it was her God-given mission to bring love to the suffering. As a result, she had been there for all of her mutant friends in some way. She was not only their friend but their sister. They were all difficult in their own way and not always easy to love, but it sure was worth it. By loving them, she gained eternal friends and siblings in return. They brought so much happiness to each other's lives. Chelsea closed her eyes and thought about them all for a moment. She smiled at all the happy memories and forgot about her awful situation for a second.

"Test subject?" the robot asked fearing that she had zoned out again. "I asked you a…"

"Yes," Chelsea said interrupting. "I have never been able to stand seeing other people unhappy and miserable. Be it my mother or any of my other brothers and sisters in Christ, I have never wanted anyone to be miserable. The world outside has been such a terrible place to them. I have been so blessed to receive the love that I have. I have not had to endure what many of them have. Since I was small, I always knew that God wanted me to love like Christ has in order to make their lives better. That is what I have done. I have done all I can to end their misery and show them love. Now, I guess they are doing the same for me."

Chelsea once again heard a slow clap over the intercom and looked up at the camera startled by the sound.

"That was beautiful," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "You are truly holy. They should canonize you as a saint."

Chelsea glared at her and said, "Shut up! You just don't understand it. That's your problem. You have never understood love."

"I choose not to take the time for useless pursuits," GLaDOS said coldly.

"Then what are you doing running this facility?" Chelsea asked.

GLaDOS was taken aback but said, "Just keep answering the questions."

Chelsea felt satisfied because she finally said something to shut the robot up. But at the same time, she also felt terrible. The robot did not understand love. Chelsea had not bothered showing it to her. Chelsea was failing in her duty as a Christian and being very hypocritical. She knew that she was being hypocritical but she had no idea how to love a monster like GLaDOS. She was incredibly difficult. Chelsea had a hard enough time keeping herself sane. How could she do that and show love?

"God," Chelsea prayed in her mind. "If you want me to love her, show me how and make me want to. The fact is that unless you intervene here there is nothing I can do. I have no idea what to do."

"Subject?" the robot asked finally interrupting her thoughts. Chelsea had been so wrapped up in thinking that she had not noticed the robot started talking again.

"Yes," Chelsea said. "I'm sorry. We're you talking to me? I guess I zoned out."

"Yes," the robot replied writing a note to possibly up the dosage on the medicine. "I was asking you the 29th question which was about whether or not you enjoy solitary pursuits."

"I do," Chelsea replied looking at the wall. "There are many things I love to do by myself. I love reading books and listening to music I have never heard before. I also love drawing although I don't think I'm as good at it as Kayla is. I love writing and playing the piano, too. In general, I love doing anything that allows me to learn or be creative. But more than anything else, I love photography. I have been practicing it since I was young. In fact, my favorite thing to do is to take pictures. I read whatever books I can find about it. I want to be good enough to work for National Geographic."

"Interesting," GLaDOS thought to herself after she heard Chelsea's response.

The subject did have things that she wanted to pursue outside of her family. The gears in GLaDOS's mind began turning, and she started getting ideas for how to deal with Chelsea once and for all. She began to come up with a plan during the next several questions.

As for Chelsea, it had been easy to come up with long answers to the questions at first, but as the questions went on, she found that it wasn't as easy. Chelsea found herself mentally tired and started having to expend more effort mentally in order to think of good answers.

"Question 32," the doctor robot said. "Do you trust yourself?"

"Yes," Chelsea said tiredly yet confidently. "I know I have faults, but I trust in my abilities. I know I'm smart, I know I'm creative, I know I'm capable, and I know I'm powerful. I also trust in God. Together, I know there's nothing we can't get through. He won't let me down."

"Okay, question 33 does not apply here, so let's move on to question 34. How often do you exercise?"

"Before coming here, I would exercise 6 days a week and only take a day off on Sundays. I have to do it in order to control my hyperactive energy. If I go to long without exercising, I have a hard time sitting still because I have more energy than I know what to do with. Exercising keeps my energy under control."

"That would explain your body's muscular tones from before you were examined. You had a decent muscle build. Your body was pretty strong."

"Yes, it was. Thank you ever so much for taking that away from me."

"I am detecting a heavy use of sarcasm. There is no need for such a reaction. You will get it back with time I'm sure. Now, we will go on to question 35. If you disappeared tomorrow, would anyone miss you?"

Chelsea looked at him in the eye incredulously.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked. "The facility has been invaded by nine other humans hell bent on saving me as we speak, and you wonder if anyone would miss me if I disappeared tomorrow? They would. They are my family. I'm not related to most of them by blood, but we are family in Christ and in bond. We would do anything for each other. If anything happened to me, you would have to face their wrath. As I understand it, you are facing their wrath as we speak. You still haven't caught them. Have you?"

"I am not authorized to say in anything in regard to that matter," the robot said nervously.

Chelsea smiled and said, "That must mean they're free. They're free and coming to get me. Before today ends, I will be home and your boss will be dead."

"Next question…" the robot said attempting to change the subject.

"Let me give you a piece of advice," Chelsea said sternly. "Things are going to get ugly here pretty soon. Your boss is on the wrong side, and God is not going to let her win. She really doesn't have a chance. Let me out of this straightjacket and then let me out of this room. I'll spare your life and make sure that you don't get killed. You can come live with us. Come and see what the world looks like outside of these ugly walls. You don't have to die here. You can be set free like I will be. What do you say?"

The robot actually froze in place for a minute confused about how to go continue or how to respond in regards to what Chelsea just said. He stared back at her as if he was thinking about what to do.

"Don't listen to her," GLaDOS said intervening to snap the robot back into reality. "She's crazy and confused. She's not going anywhere. I told you she was manipulative."

"That's the pot calling the kettle black," Chelsea said to the camera. "Isn't it?"

"Keep all discussion focused on the questions please," GLaDOS said formally and coldly. "If you are having trouble focusing, just say so and the robot can provide you with more medication, but if not, please continue to stay focused on the task at hand, test subject."

"It's not too late for you either, GLaDOS," Chelsea said. "You can be free, too. Just ask and you can be forgiven. God can save your soul."

"Enough," GLaDOS said.

"Quit living in denial," Chelsea said sitting up and smiling in her straightjacket. "You're not going to live to see the night. You can't control any of us."

"Give her more medicine, doctor," GLaDOS said fed up with Chelsea's ramblings.

"Okay, ma'am," the robot said.

He then got up and walked to the door. He was about to open the door when Chelsea started yelling at him and made him stop in his tracks.

"No! Don't go! Please! I've had so many drugs already! You're going to kill me!" Chelsea yelled sincerely afraid of being drugged again. She hated being drugged whenever GLaDOS saw fit. She hated how helpless it made her. Furthermore, Chelsea was afraid of them overdosing her.

"I'm not trying to kill you," GLaDOS said. "You don't have to worry. I know how many drugs are in you now. Giving you a little bit more won't hurt you."

"No offense," Chelsea said at the camera. "But I don't exactly trust your judgement. You could kill me or make me a brain dead zombie."

"I thought you weren't afraid of death, saint," GLaDOS said mockingly.

"I'm not," Chelsea said angrily. "But I don't want to die."

"I don't want you to do die either, princess," GLaDOS said reassuringly. "I just want to help."

"Then stop overloading my body with all these damn drugs!" Chelsea screamed.

GLaDOS saw that Chelsea was in a position to compromise so she decided to give her a chance.

"If I don't give you any more drugs for right now, do you promise to stay focused on the task at hand?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yes, I'll answer the stupid questions," Chelsea said in defeat. "Just no more drugs, please."

"Alright, then," GLaDOS said. "No drugs. Go back to your seat doctor. She's ready to cooperate again."

The doctor robot returned to his seat from where he was standing at the door and flipped through the clipboard once again. Meanwhile, Chelsea was shaking and trying to breathe deeply in order to calm herself down. She had just dodged a bullet, but she had also just given in to her enemy. Chelsea was sure that she was giving into manipulation in some way. She felt like she was drowning a little bit inside. She prayed for strength and the ability to keep going despite her fears.

"Are you sure that you don't want any medication?" GLaDOS asked. "You look like you could use some anxiety relievers to help you calm down."

"I'll be fine," Chelsea said defensively.

"Whatever you say, princess," GLaDOS said. "You can start again when you're ready, doctor."

"Question 36," the robot said happily. "Would you like to use a prism to study light?"

"I have used a prism to study light before so I suppose I would," Chelsea said just managing to calm down.

"Question 37, do you feel guilty, depressed, or remorseful?" the robot asked.

Chelsea knew exactly what to say and started to shed a few tears.

Chelsea looked away from the robot as she answered, "Yes, I have felt guilty and remorseful. I wish that I never found this place. You don't know how much suffering this place has caused my mother. She has had to endure so much, and after leaving, her life finally became something good. But me and Brandon's idiocy, we found this hell hole and forced her to come back to it. I never wanted her to have to face this place again. I never wanted to put my family and friends through this place on our account either. I know they must have had to suffer to. I never wanted that for any of them. I regret it for myself, too. I will now carry around a lot scars that I may never completely recover from."

Chelsea sighed deeply and continued thoughtfully while turning to him, "But at the same time, I think GLaDOS was right. God did mean for me to be here. As awful as this entire experience has been, there is something good that God has meant for me to do here. I now have a motivation for fighting. I will use my power that God has given me to stop this place from causing any more pain. I know now what it feels like to suffer and have grown a deeper desire for justice. I want to make sure that no one has to suffer because of an overwhelming power that I have the ability to stop. God has used this place to inspire my ambitions and to show me the reality of my responsibility. I am powerful and can't hide while there are suffering people who need me. That evil is too horrible to ignore. I can and will use my gifts to do something here and then in the outside world against the aliens. So in a twisted irony, I actually should thank you. God has used you all very well."

"Very interesting," GLaDOS thought to herself.

Chelsea was giving her a lot of information to work with, and GLaDOS used all of that information to make a plan. She was going to manipulate Chelsea into compliance. She was going to find a way to make her cooperate before her family caused any more trouble. She had all the pieces for her method to work. All she had to do now was keep an eye on the other freaks and wait for the test subject to be brought back to her.

Chelsea on her part was calming down but growing more and more bored. She was tired of forcing herself to give long and meaningful answers. Chelsea sat back against the fainting couch and stared at the ceiling. She wondered if her family was alright and how soon they would be coming for her. Chelsea also tried to think over ways to escape from her straightjacket. She couldn't create discs from her hands without cutting off her own arms. She was afraid of what GLaDOS would do if she started making discs with her feet without a good plan first. Chelsea didn't want to lose the only advantage she had left. She wanted to think, but the robot kept pestering her with the questions. It was really irritating. She wanted to be witty and energetic like before, but it was so boring. Chelsea felt like her energy was being drained just because of her effort to pay attention.

"God, is this what school was like?" Chelsea prayed. "This is awful."

However, God enabled Chelsea to answer all the questions and helped her get through it. Her patience was awarded with the final question.

"Question 50," the robot said. "What is your gender?"

"Shouldn't that have been one of the first questions?" Chelsea asked.

"Are you a man or a woman?" the robot repeated.

"I am a woman," Chelsea replied languidly.

"Congratulations!" the robot said. "You are done with the questionnaire."

Chelsea bolted up and said, "Are you serious? That's all there are? It's over now?"

"Yes," the robot said standing up. "The questions have been answered and now I have to scan them into the main computer."

The robot started walking towards Chelsea. Chelsea tried to get up, but she realized that she couldn't move her legs. She tried harder but the best she could do was wiggle her toes. She stared at the robot in confusion.

"The anesthetic I gave you has not completely worn off yet," the robot said as he was standing in front of her and pulling a cloth out of his side compartment. "Don't worry though. It will wear off soon. In the meantime though, you need to stay in here and be quiet while I go enter these answers. You can even sleep if you'd like. Hopefully, it won't take too long."

The robot twisted the cloth in his hands and then leaned towards Chelsea's face with it.

"What are you doing?" Chelsea asked pulling her head as far back as she could. "Back off!"

Chelsea struggled while the robot wrapped tied the cloth around her head to make a gag.

"My boss messaged me internally and said that she wanted you to be quiet so that she could focus, and since you won't let us use any tranquilizers, this was the best way to do it," the robot said.

Chelsea glared at him in order to hide her fear. She felt that she could not sink any lower. She was afraid and frustrated. She wanted to try to remove the gag, but she knew that she could not try to remove it while they were watching. There was nothing she could do so she laid back against the fainting couch.

"Just relax," the robot said. "I'll be back soon."

With that, the robot picked up the clipboard, opened the door, and walked out shutting and locking the door behind him. Surprisingly, GLaDOS said nothing. Chelsea thought that she would have taken the opportunity to gloat in some way. Chelsea could feel GLaDOS staring at her to see how she would react. She felt absolutely humiliated. She had been silenced against her will. This was part of her psychological treatment without a doubt.

Chelsea could not let that robot win. She decided to pray in order to get her mind taken off of her situation. She looked around the room in the silence. The room was a deceptively comfortable set up. It was meant to look like a safe place, a place where someone could lay their heart bare. The employees of Aperture Science had no doubt exploited a lot of people in this room. They had deceived them into pouring out their hearts so that they could be better manipulated in the future. It was absolutely sick.

"God, why do you still care about her?" Chelsea prayed to herself as she stared into the fire. "You are angry at her for what she has done. You're angrier than I am, because you created every single one of those people she destroyed. You loved them all. Why are you still willing to forgive GLaDOS even in light of what she is doing to me?"

"GLaDOS is a monster," the voice from above said. "She is a monster in the same way that Hitler was a monster, but I still extend my arms out to her. I still want her to be saved and to come back to me."

"Why? Don't you love me? Don't you want to do justice for me?"

"Yes! She is not going to get away with what she has done to you or to anybody. I am not granting her impunity. She deserves full wrath for what she has done, but at the same time, I am willing to take that wrath upon myself if only she would repent. I hate what she has done. You have no idea how much I hate it, but you also have no idea how much I love her."

"That makes sense in a weird kind of way. I think I understand, but for right now, I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Keep fighting. I will give you the power to do so, but you must do one thing for me."

"What is it, Lord?"

"I need you to trust me no matter what happens. You are going to win. My power inside you is much greater than hers. I am not just talking about your shields either. I also have great power inside your soul. She is not going to break you, but she is going to try extremely hard. She is incredibly desperate. You cannot give into her. You have to trust me no matter what you encounter or how scared you get. You have to keep fighting and keep trying to love her."

"God, I can't love her. I only see her as a monster. I don't see whatever is in there that you created that you loved. It's not there anymore. I can't forgive her or love her like you can, Father. I'm sorry but unless you do something I am going to hate her until the day I die."

"I will help you," the voice said patiently. "I will give you the ability to see. I will give you the ability to persevere. I will even give you the power to defeat her, but you must trust me. No matter what happens the situation is never hopeless. I am the God of everything and unless you believe that, she will break you."

"Okay," Chelsea thought adamantly. "I will trust you. I will. Just grant me the ability to and please don't leave me."

"I won't, Chelsea," the voice said. "I never have."

Chelsea laid her head back and genuinely felt peace for the first time all day. She would get out of this. She was not going to crack. The peace which transcended all understanding lived inside her heart and her mind. GLaDOS would never be able to break it no matter how hard she tried. Chelsea sighed into her gag, stared into the fire, and closed her eyes in an attempt to sleep. Unfortunately, she was unable to because the medicine was keeping her awake and alert, so she gave up on it after a few minutes. Chelsea stared into the fire and continued to wiggle her toes in an effort to get the bottom half of her body working again. Everything was silent except for the crackle of the fire. The silence was nice. It was a deceptively relaxing calm before the storm she knew that was coming. Chelsea enjoyed the silence and worked on moving her toes. After about ten minutes of effort, she was finally able to shake her feet back and forth. It was a small victory but a victory nonetheless. Chelsea started working on shaking her feet until her legs started moving again. Unfortunately however, that was when the robot opened the door to come back into the room and pushed the wheelchair in front of him.

"The results are scanned in and now it is time for you to go back to the main chamber," the robot said happily.

The robot picked Chelsea up and sat her down on the wheelchair. He then started to buckle her in, but GLaDOS yelled at him over the intercom.

"That won't be necessary," GLaDOS said. "She still can't move her legs."

"But she will be able to soon," the robot protested.

"By that time, she will be with me. It'll be okay. Besides, I think she has earned a chance to stretch her legs after sitting still for so long."

"Okay, ma'am!"

The robot then walked outside, picked the sack off of the metal table, and pulled it over Chelsea's head. The robot then turned the wheelchair around, went back into the room to turn off the fireplace, and then pushed the wheelchair back down the hall. Chelsea was nervous about going back in the main chamber, but she was not afraid. GLaDOS would not win. She was going to lose. Chelsea was going to escape. She just had to find her opportunity. The trip back seemed much shorter than the trip to the questioning room. Whether that was because the robot was taking another route or because Chelsea was feeling differently than before, she was not sure. But in no time at all, it seemed that they arrived at their destination.

The robot parked the wheelchair in the middle of the room and stepped away to talk to GLaDOS for a minute. Upon seeing this opportunity, Jeffrey shapeshifted into a skink and moved quietly and quickly along the floor in order to reach Chelsea. He climbed up the wheelchair, onto her shoulder, and under the sack that was over her head. He was surprised to see the gag in person.

"Chelsea, what have they done to you? Are you okay?" Jeffrey whispered in shock.

Chelsea was happy to hear his voice again and turned to look at him. She was so glad that he was still alive. She smiled underneath the gag and nodded her head.

"I'm alright too," Jeffrey said. "I'm sorry that I scared you like that. Zaki wanted me to tell you though that you have helped a lot. The others are really close to escaping now. Your answers were really good. GLaDOS had trouble focusing on Zaki's group because she was fascinated by what you were saying. I'm guessing that's why she had you gagged. Anyway, she has not been able to find them and is sending a robot taskforce out to get them. We will have to watch out. She knows about the broken xenon gas machine and the escaped test subjects. She isn't happy. We have to get out of here. Can you move your legs yet?"

Chelsea shook her head.

"Crap! Well as soon as the anesthetics wear off, we have to run away," Jeff said.

Chelsea nodded.

"In the meantime, I'm going to guess that you want me to hide so GLaDOS doesn't find me," Jeff said.

Chelsea nodded her head once again. She wished that she could communicate with him telepathically like she could with her Dad. They could come up with a better plan that way.

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a smaller lizard and climbed behind Chelsea's ear. The robot and GLaDOS talked quietly for a few more minutes and then Chelsea heard the robot turn and walk out of the room. Her heart began to beat faster as she realized she was alone with GLaDOS once more. She had to say a prayer in order to help herself not to tremble. GLaDOS used her claw to take the sack off of Chelsea's head. She stared at her for a moment in silence before she decided to proceed.


	21. Chapter 21

"I hated doing this to you," GLaDOS said as she stared down at Chelsea in the wheelchair straightjacketed and gagged. "But I had to have some quiet in order to concentrate. I knew that you would never do it willingly. You're too stubborn for that. If you had your way, you would talk my metaphoric ears off with a sermon about morality or something like that. I'd never be able to get any work done. I may have had to resort to something drastic like surgically removing your vocal chords. I'm sure that you would agree that this is the better option."

GLaDOS turned back and pulled up some monitors with some lab results. Chelsea glared and started quickly rubbing her mouth on her left shoulder in order to remove the gag.

"You know you are the exact opposite of your mother in that way," GLaDOS continued. "She never has said a word to me, but you never seem to stop talking. Nothing I do could make her talk to me, but I had to resort to extreme measures just to make you shut up for ten minutes."

GLaDOS turned around and saw what Chelsea was doing. However, she did not stop so GLaDOS moved her claw under her chin and held her face so that she would look right at her.

"However, I can still see a lot of her in you," she said. "I see her face, her eyes, and her tenacity. You are her child. You never give up ever."

GLaDOS opened her claw a little bit and said as she pinched her claw on the gag, "You are just like her." Then she said as she pulled the gag down so that it was just hanging around her neck, "But at the same time so different."

Chelsea breathed through her mouth for a moment and then looked up at GLaDOS.

"I already knew that I was different," Chelsea said. "You don't have to tell me that. That's already obvious."

"Yes, but you have no idea how different you are," GLaDOS said. "You are not even human."

"What are you talking about?"

"There's something you need to see."

GLaDOS used her claw to pick Chelsea up by her waist out of the wheelchair. She carried her and placed her on a black leather office chair that had wheels on the bottom. It was very comfortable.

"I found you a more comfortable chair, so that you could be comfortable until the medicine on your legs wore off," GLaDOS said.

GLaDOS then moved the chair until it stopped in front of the monitors. The monitors had charts on them, but Chelsea couldn't make sense of them.

"Did you know that you have more in common with a plant than you do with a human?" GLaDOS asked. "It is actually very interesting."

"What do you mean?" Chelsea asked. "That's nonsense."

"I mean that you require sunlight in order to survive."

"Everyone does. They get vitamin A through their skin."

"That is true for normal humans, but you are no normal human. Your body gets most of its energy from sunlight."

"What?"

GLaDOS looked towards the monitors.

"For the first three weeks that you were here, I was honestly afraid that you were going to die," she said. "Not because of anything I was doing, but because of how your metabolism was operating. We gave you as much nutrition intravenously as was recommended in order to keep your body functioning normally, but after just eight hours, your body began to use it up too quickly and started consuming what little fat reserves were left on you. We began to have to give you more and more so that your body would not turn to consuming its own organs. I did everything I could think of for three weeks while continuing your invasive examinations, but even with the nutrients, your body managed to lose 20 pounds. That is not healthy by any means you know. No human is supposed to lose weight that fast. A little bit of weight is lost. That is to be expected but not 20 pounds. I didn't tell you my concerns when you woke up the first time because I was afraid of your reaction. Most humans do not like hearing news of that sort, especially in your situation."

Chelsea looked at her and said, "I was dying and you didn't tell me!"

"I didn't want to scare you," GLaDOS said. "You may have panicked and tried to run away. Of course, you did that anyway, but you would have tried even harder. You would have definitely died then. But anyways, you are getting us off topic again. You contracted pneumonia which made everything much worse. Your body was desperate for energy, and I was desperate for ideas. I came up with an interesting hypothesis that was a crazy idea, but I thought it was worth a shot. You know how the hard light bridges work?"

GLaDOS pulled up a picture of hard light bridges on the monitor.

"No," Chelsea replied. "I have no idea."

"They are powered by sunlight that is pumped in from the surface," GLaDOS said. "The material of the hard light trails is what lives in your bloodstream, so my hypothesis was that your body worked in a similar way. I noticed that your metabolism always slowed down to normal levels for a time after you had been under the surgical lights in the medical examination lab for a while and sped up considerably on the days when you were left in the dark post-surgical relaxation room, so I thought the hypothesis could prove to be true. I had a large sunlamp brought in and had you placed under it. I gave you everything you needed while continuously bathing you in light. To my surprise after one day, your metabolism was not only slowing down. Your left arm was ready to have its stitches removed and your body was beginning to heal more quickly. I wanted to know if it was the sunlamp or something else, so I gave you food to eat when the machine broke in order to see if your body would hold the weight and changed nothing else except for turning off the sunlamp for 24 hours…"

"Ceteris Paribas," Chelsea muttered to herself.

"Excuse me?" GLaDOS asked.

"Ceteris Paribas, that in Latin means that you changed all other factors except for one," Chelsea said. "I remember that from an economics textbook a while back but I thought it applied here. I'm kind of random that way."

"Uh huh," GLaDOS said in a tone that was somewhat fascinated. "But once I left you in the dark again, your body immediately went back to what it was doing before. I knew after that that it was the light your body needed, so that's how we treated you. The results were unbelievable. Your wounds and your disease healed very quickly. You started to regain your weight, too. I scanned your body after catching you again to verify what I already had guessed, and it turned out to be true."

"What turned out to be true?" Chelsea asked.

"The radiation in your blood has a much larger effect than giving you powers. It affects how your entire body functions. Your body gathers energy from the light that it would normally gather from food or water. You still require nutrition and hydration, but you need light more than any of them in order to survive. Your body uses energy from the light in order to carry out its normal functions. It can survive in the dark for a night time from energy stored in cells, but after that energy is used up, it gets hungry and requires exposure to the sun once again. If it stays in the dark for too long, it turns to fat reserves or anything else available in order to nourish itself. Then if it is still deprived for much longer, you like a plant will wither away. However if you are allowed constant exposure to the light, your body works in overdrive. Because of the excess of energy, everything functions faster, especially your immune system and healing functions. That is why in about a week you were able to recover from injuries that it would take other people weeks and months to recover from. It is also has caused your hair to grow out a little bit. Fascinating, isn't it? Like I said before, you are more like a plant than like a human. Now, any questions?"

Chelsea felt absolutely dumbfounded. What GLaDOS was saying was so bizarre, and yet it made sense. Chelsea had always noticed that her body felt stronger after being in the sun. Sunlight always made her feel better. She had also noticed that her body felt weaker after being out of the sun for long periods of time like when she was playing videogames in a dark room with Jeffrey for hours on end. It made sense, but at the same time, it was so hard to believe. Chelsea wracked her brain to find any objections. She could only find one question.

"Just to clarify," Chelsea said. "My body survives off sunlight, but can it survive on artificial light, too?"

"It can," GLaDOS said. "The light is just not as good for it as sunlight is, but it can manage."

"Oh," Chelsea said. That explained why she didn't die when she had to stay inside during the winter.

After a moment of silence passed, GLaDOS said, "It's simply incredible. Isn't it? You could have gone your entire life without ever knowing this information. Aren't you glad we met?"

Chelsea glared at GLaDOS and said, "I am glad that I know what I know now. I just wish that I could have found it out without being experimented on. This whole experience has been absolutely awful, and I honestly can't wait for it to be over."

"You complain way too much, princess. You act as if I have intentionally harmed you. I haven't done anything to you out of spite. I have only done what is necessary. I have even treated you better than others. This place and I are not as cruel as you think. Actually if you wanted to make comparisons, Aperture Science is pretty humane compared to other facilities."

"Yeah, right! I am sitting here in a straightjacket and cannot walk because you forcibly tranquilized me. You don't know what humane means. That is a boldfaced lie."

"It actually isn't. Have you ever heard of Unit 731?"

"Unit 731?" Chelsea asked. "No, what is it?"

"I'll enlighten you then," GLaDOS said pulling up pictures on the monitor.

The first picture was of an Imperial Japanese Army Unit from World War II. While GLaDOS was explaining, she pulled up more pictures from her database to illustrate what she was talking about.

"The Imperial Japanese Army Unit 731 was a unit that held a scientific research facility in their conquered territory of China during World War II," GLaDOS explained. "This research facility was funded by the government and allowed to carry out experiments on captured locals and prisoners of war for the purpose of research in biological warfare. Lieutenant Shiro Ishii was in charge while the facility was staffed by doctors and research staff from Japanese universities and medical schools. All of it was kept top secret so that the general public would not know about it."

"That's awful," Chelsea said in disgust. "Just as bad as here though."

"Oh, no," GLaDOS said. "Their work was much more savage. You see, here in Aperture, death was a much quicker process. The humans did not suffer as much. In Unit 731 however, their deaths were slower and usually more painful."

GLaDOS pulled up pictures in color of the subjects staring at the camera with their faces full of illness.

"You see," she said. "People were deliberately infected with pathogens like anthrax, the plague, and cholera. They were infected and then they were dissected alive without anesthesia."

GLaDOS pulled up pictures and silent color film footage of a subject as he was dissected alive without anesthesia. The subject was tied down, and he was screaming in horror as he was being cut open from the chest to the stomach and his organs were popping out. His face was twisted in agony. Chelsea had never seen such a gruesome sight in her entire life. She had never watched anyone die. It was absolutely horrifying. Chelsea began shaking with fear at the sight while GLaDOS remained emotionless. It bothered her even more to know that except for the fact that she was unconscious the robots did the same thing to her.

"Oh, God," Chelsea whispered in horror. "You did the same thing to me."

"Oh, no," GLaDOS said. "You were asleep the whole time and I actually made sure that your organs were put back where they belonged."

GLaDOS pulled up a video of the robots doing a medical examination on Chelsea. She was asleep the whole time as they cut her open and appeared to be examining her organs. Chelsea saw it all, and she closed her eyes because she felt nauseous.

"In comparison," GLaDOS said pulling down the video. "I would say that you were treated much better."

Chelsea opened her eyes and shook in fear.

"That's not all they did either," GLaDOS said very matter of fact pulling down one video and pulling up another. "Other subjects were taken outside and tied to stakes. Sometimes, a bomb would be tested close by in order to see how humans were affected."

GLaDOS then pulled up video footage of someone tied to a stake being hit by the shrapnel of a bomb. The shrapnel flew straight into her chest, she appeared to scream, and then all screams stopped entirely as her head flopped forward. Chelsea was speechless. She wanted to believe the image was not real and that no one was really dying. However, she knew that it wasn't true. Chelsea noticed that her ability to think was disappearing as every thought became clouded in terror. All she could do was feel, and she felt fear.

GLaDOS continued as she pulled down one video and pulled up another, "Other kinds of bombs were tested as well like plague bombs. Then other humans like the one in this video were tested to their limits. This one was locked inside a pressure chamber until his eyes bulged out."

Chelsea watched a young boy curl up into a ball on the floor and scream from pressure exposure. The camera was at a distance so she could not see him as well, but she could tell when his eyes popped out. He was screaming and this time there was audio. He was screaming in agony and yelling in Chinese. Chelsea could not understand him, but the fear and anguish behind his voice would forever ring in her ears. GLaDOS seeing the fear in her eyes as well pulled down the video and pulled up photographs to correspond with what she was saying.

"Subjects would be taken outside during the winter so that their limbs would freeze off, and the scientists could discover then how to treat frostbite," GLaDOS said nonchalantly and in the most emotionless way imaginable. "They would also test poison gas, amputate limbs in order to study the effects of blood loss, attach limbs to opposite sides of the body, remove stomachs, reattach the esophagus to the intestines, remove parts of the brain and other essential organs, have guards rape the women and then examine the babies, drop items infected with venereal diseases into surrounding villages, test flamethrowers on humans, test chemical weapons on them, deprive them of food and water in order to determine the length of time until death, experimented on them to determine the relationship between human survivals and temperature burns, spin them to death in centrifuges, inject them with animal blood, expose them to lethal doses of x-rays, inject them with sea water, bury them alive…"

Chelsea sat still staring at the monitor in absolute horror. The pictures that were being pulled up were in full color so she saw everything. She was absolutely shocked. She saw surgeons vivisecting a baby, doctors applying burns onto subjects, a man getting injected with needles, a woman suffocating in a gas chamber, starving children, and other awful images. The worst images of all had to be the vivisections. It was weird. When they were cut open, the organs were brought out, and they were being cut apart, the humans did not look like humans anymore. They were masses of body parts. That was how they were seen. Chelsea realized that was how GLaDOS saw her.

It was too much. Every single one of these humans was a person made in the image of God, but here, they were being destroyed and degraded so that every trace of that dignity was removed. They were just masses of body parts to be used. They did not matter. They were treated like objects that could be played with and then discarded. Chelsea knew that the Japanese had done bad things, but she had never believed they would be guilty of something this horrible. It was horrifying to realize how horrible people could be.

Meanwhile, GLaDOS was continuing to list of all the atrocities committed there like she was listing off the items on a grocery list. It obviously did not phase her in the least. Chelsea had had enough. She could move her feet so she used her feet to help her turn her chair around on the floor. Her eyes were filling up with tears and bile was rising in her throat at all she had just seen. GLaDOS stopped talking and watched her. Chelsea was trembling from head to toe.

"They were humans," Chelsea said quietly looking down. "They each had souls. God knitted them together in their mothers' wombs. They had purposes for living. Jesus shed his blood for every single one of them. How could they do something so horrible? How could this place do such awful things?"

"Interesting," GLaDOS remarked intrigued at her reaction. "You are doing it again. You are responding with faith logic. Other humans would just be quiet or be angry and yell a lot. You always respond in the same way. You go off about why it's wrong. Every time, you always go off about why it's wrong. No matter what it is, that is how you respond. It fascinates me."

"You see all that and that is all you have to say?" Chelsea said darkly. "You deserve to burn."

"I already have," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "I can't help it. You really are interesting. You are intelligent, but you talk like a pastor or a philosopher. You are related to your mother, but you are as skinny as a twig. There are so many contradictions in you. Your being is almost as interesting as your powers. You are remarkably odd."

Suddenly, something occurred to Chelsea. She used her feet to move the chair back around and look at GLaDOS.

"GLaDOS, if these experiments were so secret, then how does Aperture have video footage and photographs of all of it," Chelsea asked.

"There's the intelligence," GLaDOS said.

"Well?" Chelsea asked.

GLaDOS started talking once again, "After the war ended and Japan lost, the United States government found out what the Japanese had done. However instead of punishing them for committing war crimes, they wanted to use their research, so the two governments made a deal. The United States government would have complete access to all the findings of their research and in exchange the Japanese were granted complete impunity for their crimes…"

"No," Chelsea said in disbelief. "They weren't! Those bastards got away with it?"

"Yes," GLaDOS said slightly annoyed at Chelsea's interruption. "Most of the doctors went on to prominent careers afterwards. But as I was saying…"

"That's messed up. That is so screwed up. How could they do something so awful?"

"Do I have to put the gag back on your mouth or will you let me finish explaining? Anyways, Aperture Science was on good terms with the government at the time, so we were granted access to all the research. That research was incredibly helpful to the company. It helped us determine how to best set up our tests with people. We studied their data to come up with research of our own. It helped us to come up with many fantastic ideas. The scientists of Unit 731 were truly great partners in the pursuit of science."

Chelsea stared down at the floor absolutely disgusted by what she was hearing. GLaDOS saw how she was feeling and continued talking.

"Anyways, the point I was trying to make with that is that you complain way too much," GLaDOS said coldly. "I know. I have been so cruel to you. I put you under for three and half weeks while I examined your insides. I have done everything I could to take care of you. You have not had to suffer in the least compared to how the other test subjects were treated here or there."

"I hate this place regardless," Chelsea said. "I hate that place, too. I wish neither of them were ever created. I can't wait until I can tear this place apart."

"Don't be so rash," GLaDOS said. "If it weren't for Unit 731 and Aperture, you wouldn't exist or be the way you are now."

"What do you mean?"

"Unit 731 inspired a great deal of research in Aperture, including the portal tests. If it weren't for Aperture, your mother would not have been alive to meet your father in the future and to give birth to you. You would not have ever existed. Furthermore if it weren't for the portal tests, your mother wouldn't have been exposed to radiation and you would not have had your powers either. You really should be more grateful. You may hate this place. You may hate it with all your heart, but you owe everything to it."

Chelsea pulled her head up and looked forward. GLaDOS was right. She existed because of Aperture. God could use horrible events to do great things, but was her existence the only reason that he allowed those things to happen? Surely, she was not worth all the suffering that went on. Why did he allow this? Chelsea couldn't reason through it. She tried to think through the horror, but it was getting too hard.

"And so it goes," GLaDOS continued coldly interrupting her thoughts. "You have to do something other people consider despicable in order to accomplish something great, but the results are always worth the sacrifices."

"No, they're not," Chelsea said defiantly. "They're not worth it. They have never been worth it."

"That's your opinion," GLaDOS said. "I would have thought that you valued your existence more than that."

Chelsea looked GLaDOS in the face again.

"GLaDOS, what is your point behind this? Why are you showing me all these images? What are you trying to accomplish?" Chelsea asked.

"I'm only trying to make a point to you, saint," GLaDOS said pulling in closer. "In your questioning, you said that you cared about people and wanted to go out into the world to fight aliens in order to save mankind. That is an admirable goal on paper, but if you were to do that, what would you really have accomplished? Would you have really done anything good?"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that the world you live in now is simpler, more beautiful, and much more peaceful place than what the world would be if all those humans were free. Think about it. You take what you need, you live in a community of understanding people who love you and each other, and everyone has figured out how to live comfortably enough to be content with their lives. The environment I'm sure is healthier, too. Without all the cars, global warming has reduced drastically and all the endangered species are exploding in numbers. You don't have to face hostility from anyone for your religious beliefs, your powers, or for your mental disability either. Even though it's the Apocalypse, you are actually better off ironically. You may have to work harder in order to live but you can handle this life. You know how to handle it, so it's better. The old world would have been a much more difficult place to live."

"Yeah, I get it!" Chelsea said impatiently. "I've read books, seen the documentaries, and talked to people. I know the old world sucked, but it's gone. What does that have to do with fighting now?"

"If you save the world and free all those people, then what will the result be?" GLaDOS said. "The people will resort to the world that they knew before. The world will become an awful place once again. If you were scared of the pictures of Unit 731, how horrifying will you find the world that these people create? You would not have saved the world. You would have killed it once again. Those people are the ones who made the old world so horrible. They don't deserve another chance. They will just do the same thing again."

Chelsea felt haunted by her old words being thrown back at her.

"It doesn't have to be that way," Chelsea protested. "The world is different than you remember it. People have changed. It wasn't that bad before. Even if it was, we can change it for the better. The old system is gone anyway."

"From my experience and my study of history, human nature stays pretty consistent over time," GLaDOS said cynically. "Civilization may have improved as far as technology and laws go, but people always have the same basic problems in their nature. From what I can tell, your congregation has not been immune to those problems either. I mean one of your friends is an orphan who was abandoned by peasants because they feared that she was a demon…"

Chelsea looked up afraid and said, "How did you know about…"

"One of your other friends is an angry dragon with violent tendencies, and another one of them is a telekinetic cripple with no arms or legs. That is most of the information that I have been able to glean from them so far, but from that, I can tell that your world was not and is not perfect. Tell me, how have your mutated people coped with living in the real world? I can't imagine that your people were well-accepted by everyone."

Chelsea thought for a moment. GLaDOS was right. The emergence of the mutated humans was a surprise to everyone and although for the most part they were tolerated, their relationship with the rest of the world was shaky at best from what she had learned from her family. The governments of the world had figured that trying to control them would cause a controversy that could spark a war, so they left them alone. How the mutants fit in with the rest of society depended on how each individual used their powers and how their societies reacted to them. There were many mutants who used their powers for good. Some mutants, like Pastor Roberts, had powers but did not let them determine the choice of their careers and were thus treated like normal people because they did not advertise their mutation. Other mutants, like Zaki and Roscoe, decided to use their powers in order to help others in their respective fields. Mutants like them were praised. However, the praise led to jealousy and rejection for others like Sylvie, who was hated and envied for what was perceived as an unfair advantage. Sometimes for mutants like Albina who lived in more spiritual countries, mutants were seen as demonic and were thus feared and mistreated by other people even when they did nothing wrong.

Furthermore, there were also many mutants who abused their power for their own selfish gain. There were people like Zaki's parents and Brandon's mother who used their powers to manipulate others and to gain something for themselves. While they worked by themselves, there were others who worked with or formed larger criminal organizations and caused a lot of trouble. That was an especially big problem on the continent of Africa and in the country of India. People who were born with mutated powers were considered manifestations of the gods in the more traditional villages and were worshipped as such. There were a good number of benevolent "gods" who tried to use their gifts well, but there was a large number of "gods" who had higher ambitions for their mortal lives. They used their power and influence to fight against their respective governments and people that opposed them in order to obtain ultimate political power in their nations. Their followers did whatever they wanted because they actually believed that they were gods and feared them as such. That made life hell for Hugo when he was still living in Cote d'Ivoire. People were deeply suspicious of him even if his father worked in the government and had a reputation for being a godly man. The people who were not pagans treated other mutants as witches or warlocks. There were congregations of Christians and Muslims who knew better, but they were outnumbered. That social rejection and turmoil in general also had the effect of breeding future criminals and warlords who amassed followers and used their powers for to cause trouble.

In any case, the mutants did not have an easy time before the Combines returned to earth. Now in comparison, life was peaceful. Chelsea's congregation was a good one that accepted the mutated people as being blessed by God. The rest of the world would not be like that. Chelsea sighed. She knew that the rest of the world would not be like her congregation. They did not want to follow the ways of Christ. Releasing those people could be releasing a Pandora's Box of bad things. The world would have to deal with the evil until Christ's return.

"The mutants have had a hard time coping in the world," Chelsea admitted. "There was prejudice and I figure that there always will be."

"Isn't it sad?" GLaDOS asked rhetorically. "There is always prejudice against those who are different, those who in appearance, in mental faculties, and in abilities are just not like everybody else. The world should embrace them, but instead, they reject them, fear them, and sometimes even lock them away. It is so unbelievably cruel. Take you and your ADHD for instance. If you grew up in the normal world, odds are that you would struggling with depression. People with ADHD tend to be more intelligent, more creative, and more energetic than normal, but you struggle to sit still and pay attention. For that, you are seen as a troublemaker by all your peers. But now, you don't have to worry about prejudice from anyone. In fact, your world seems to be freer than it has ever been. You don't have any culture, any society, any system, or any government to contend with. You can do and have whatever you want, and there is nothing in the world to tell you no. I don't know how you could say no to it."

Chelsea sat in silence and thought for a while that GLaDOS was right. The world for her was awesome the way it was, and she wished that she did not have to fight to help other people who may make it what it was before. She didn't want to worry about the prejudice, but she decided that she would be able to handle with the help of God.

"I would learn how to deal with the world," Chelsea said. "You said yourself that I'm pretty smart. I could figure out how to adapt."

"You might be able to," GLaDOS said. "But would your mother or any of the others? I guess that all the others could use their powers to do something to get by while enduring the prejudice, but what about your mother? How would she adapt with having to become part of the system and all the stresses that come with it? How would the world treat her? I guess that she can make jewelry, but would she be able to live off of it especially considering all her emotional needs that she would have to attend to?"

"How dare you," Chelsea said angrily.

"That is something that you should be more concerned about," GLaDOS said. "The world you live in now is more stress free than the world that you would release. Life will be much more complicated once they're around. You'll see. You really have no idea what people are capable of. They are evil and will destroy everything the way that they did before. Your good world will be gone forever, and you will have hurt the lives of the people that you care about the most."

"It doesn't have to be that way," Chelsea said hopefully. "I am part of the future after all. God can use me and my family to influence the world for the better. There have to be prejudice or destruction."

"Don't think that you can change all of human nature, saint," GLaDOS said cynically. "It will always be a losing battle. No matter how much good you do, evil will always be done out there."

"Until Jesus returns and defeats it all."

"Maybe, but until then, you're the one who will have to put up with it. Will you be able to handle it? I mean, from being here, you have had several nervous breakdowns and have come close to committing suicide twice. If you were to do that out there, you may have been institutionalized. I honestly don't think you're capable of handling it."

Chelsea was overwhelmed. She had not thought about the consequences of defeating the Combines and saving all the humans. GLaDOS was right in a way. The world would never be the same. Would they all be able to deal with it?

Chelsea looked off into the distance thoughtfully for a moment and then said, "No, I probably won't be able to handle it, but I will with the help of God. All of us will. He has helped me endure this hell, so I think I can face whatever the world throws at me. Besides, I have no choice. I don't want to stay here."

"Why?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea looked at her dumbfounded. Did she really just ask such an incredibly obvious question?

"Why?" Chelsea asked back. "I don't want to be treated like a lab animal. That's why! I don't want to be vivisected, drugged, inseminated, isolated, put through trials, and deprived of life whenever you see fit. I want to be free."

"That makes sense," GLaDOS said. "I have actually been thinking a lot about it since you were being questioned. Your friends want to be free to fight aliens, you want to be free to live life to the upmost, and I want to understand how your powers work. I have been thinking about a way to get all of us what we want."

"So, what do you propose that we do?" Chelsea asked.

"Exactly what I said before," GLaDOS said. "We make a compromise."

"What kind of compromise?" Chelsea asked nervously.

"I already know about the escaped test subjects," GLaDOS said. "My robots are tracking them down now. However if you agree to help me, I will let them all go."

"You would?" Chelsea asked nervously and skeptically. "Help you how?"

"There's also a lot of equipment in the facility that is not being used, too. The blond one can take it and use it to make whatever she wants. They will need all they can if they are going to fight aliens after all."

"You would just let us take it? What do you want in return?"

"Yes, I'm willing to do that for them, but in return again, all I want is you. I want you to stay with me willingly for the rest of your life. I will carry out experiments to find out how your powers work, and I will give your friends whatever they desire."

Chelsea thought for a moment and shook her head.

"No, there's no way that my friends would ever agree to that," Chelsea said. "They wouldn't want to leave me behind."

"Why do you think they care about you?" GLaDOS asked coldly. "It's because you have helped them, and right now, they need you. They're your friends now, but they will desert you once the world is back in working order. They have other missions that they want to accomplish. Life will force them to scatter and you will lose all contact with them. Maintaining a relationship with you will not be a priority for them anymore."

"That's not true," Chelsea said shaking. The comment struck her to her core. She loved her friends. They really were her family and the idea of them leaving her life horrified her. She wanted them to stay in her life for as long as she lived. She thought they felt the same way about her and loved her in the same way. She believed that they did. They had to. She didn't want to think that them leaving her was even a possibility.

"Most friendships don't last a lifetime," GLaDOS said coldly. "Why should yours be any different? Most friends leave anyway."

"Roscoe didn't," Chelsea protested. "He has been my Dad's best friend since college. They're like brothers."

"There are exceptions to the rules, but mostly, people aren't willing to keep in contact for that long," GLaDOS admitted. "People tend to get what they need from someone and then abandon them when they don't need them anymore. Other people are just not willing to fight to stay friends forever."

"My friends will," Chelsea said as much to convince herself as to convince GLaDOS. "You'll see. They aren't monsters like you. They care about me. We're family, and we will always be there for each other."

"Whatever," GLaDOS said. "Don't come crying to me when you're disappointed."

"My parents would never approve of it either," Chelsea said.

"You're an adult now legally, and they have to respect your ability to make choices," GLaDOS said.

"They won't do that because they know that there is no way in hell that I would make this choice willingly. Why should I? You're going to put me and my babies through a world of agony," Chelsea responded.

"I've been thinking about that, too," GLaDOS said. "If you would agree to stay with me, I would give you three things in return. First of all, I would take your experiments in another direction. I would not require you to have babies or go through the testing chambers."

"What?"

"It's true. In order to show you how sincere I am, I will even release the test subject who I intended for you to marry."

"I thought you said they were all free."

"No, one is still in the testing chamber relaxation center where I left him about a month ago. I was going to test him when you showed up."

Jeffrey heard the message loud and clear and telepathically contacted Zaki about it right away.

"Second in between work, I will let you take vacations with a robot escort. You can even visit your family as long as you swear to return," GLaDOS said.

"Some vacation that would be," Chelsea said sarcastically. "I wouldn't be able to do anything other than go home. I will never see the world."

"I found a way to solve that problem, too," GLaDOS said. "There are teleportation chambers that the scientists were working on. They could go anywhere in the world. If you stay, I could fix them and you could go wherever your heart desires. I think you have earned that, little saint. You have been so kind and so helpful towards others without asking a thing in return. I think you deserve for someone to do something for you for a change."

"You're not serious," Chelsea said in surprise.

"Aperture Science was responsible for creating the portal gun and sentient artificial beings," GLaDOS said. "Is the invention of a teleporter really that far-fetched?"

Chelsea was quiet, but her heart was beating faster with excitement about the idea. It was like something out of a science fiction movie or TV show. She could not believe that such a great thing really existed and could be used in her life. She could go anywhere she wanted in the whole world.

"I could go anywhere I wanted?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes," GLaDOS said fanning the flames in her heart. "You could go anywhere you wanted…even Australia."

"Stay out of my head!" Chelsea yelled.

"I apologize," GLaDOS said calmly. "I am not trying to scare you. I am just trying to make you happy."

"Why? Why do you suddenly care about how I feel about anything?"

"That is my compromise. I will do things to make you happy instead of making you miserable while still carrying out my work."

"You would give the teleporter to me and not to my friends?"

"They don't deserve it. They have used you your whole life, while all you have wanted to do is follow your dreams."

"What are you getting at?"

"I am not trying to hurt you if that is what you mean. I feel for you, princess. I really do. I honestly feel that the two of us are a lot alike. We are both creatures bound by our circumstances. We have both been held back by others and never been able to gain what we have desired the most. I want to give you the chance that I was never given. I want you to be able to attain all that your heart desires."

Chelsea felt odd. She felt the temptation to stay for the first time during this whole ordeal. She had never been able to travel once in her entire life. She had only been able to read about the world, watch programs about the world, and talk to others about it, but life had always been too dangerous to travel away from the hotel. The aliens could have caught them, but with the teleporter, she could finally go to the places where she had dreamed of going without getting caught. Chelsea could finally take all the pictures and have all the experiences that she wanted to have. All she had to do was say yes to this AI and endure some experiments. She did not know if she would ever get a chance like this one. Staying with GLaDOS could be the only way to ever fulfill this dream.

"Then finally," GLaDOS said interrupting Chelsea's thoughts. "I think the best benefit of all is that you would be able to fulfill your religious duty."

"Religious duty?" Chelsea asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Your duty to witness to non-believers," GLaDOS said. "If you stay, you can talk about your religion as much as you want. I have to admit that while I have knowledge of the whole Christian religion in my data I don't understand it the way that you do. You can witness to me and open my metaphorical heart. Then in that way, you can save my soul from hell. Think about it. You are fulfilling God's mission by being here and talking to me. You could influence me, and maybe eventually, I will change. I am mildly interested in it right now, but in time, I could become completely interested in it. You could reform me. You have that power. What do you think? Do you really believe in your mission? Do you really believe in the call to leave everything else behind in order to save the one sheep that has wondered away?"

Those words shook Chelsea to her core even more than her comment about her friends did. Could this really be the mission that God had called her on? She could hardly believe it. She could witness to the robot and be able to travel the world. The mission seemed cool, but it also felt so wrong. She would lose her freedom forever. Was it right to trade her freedom away like this?

"You seem to have a bit to think about," GLaDOS said. "Would you like to stand up? The anesthetics should have lost its effects on your legs by now."

Chelsea stretched out her legs in front of her. GLaDOS was right. She could move them.

"Here, let me help you," GLaDOS said as she used her claw to pick up Chelsea and stand her on her feet. "You can walk around for a minute and think about it. Tell me when you've made your decision."

GLaDOS shut the door so that Chelsea would not take the moment to try to run. She may have had her where she wanted her, but she still didn't trust her completely. Meanwhile, Chelsea felt shell shocked. For the first time in her life it seemed, she actually didn't know what to do. GLaDOS was right and was offering her so many good things, but Chelsea wished she wasn't. Chelsea wanted to travel the world, but not if it meant losing her freedom. She didn't want to lose her freedom for her.

"Don't do it, Chelsea," Jeffrey whispered in his concern. "Please. This isn't right."

Chelsea thought to herself that he was right. It wasn't right, but God could still use it. God has used people trapped in awful situations before. She wasn't exactly trapped, but perhaps she was meant to stay. God may have wanted her to stay there and witness to GLaDOS for the rest of her life. In her mind, that made sense, but emotionally, it was absolutely horrifying. She didn't want to do it. As she paced around, she found every rationale for why she should do it while realizing how much she detested the idea of becoming a slave. It was wrong what GLaDOS was asking her to do even if there were amazing benefits, but could it really be God's mission? God wouldn't ask her to willingly allow something bad to happen to her so that he could do something good. Would he?

Sometimes things are not just black and white. There is good and better, and a person must decide between the two. Chelsea thought that it would be a noble thing to sacrifice her life for GLaDOS, but the more she thought about it, the more she was disgusted by the idea. She would lose her freedom forever if she did this. GLaDOS may have been willing to let her go out on outings. She would have been able to visit her family and go all over the world to take pictures if the teleporter really worked like she said they did, but Chelsea would have had shackles on her ankles that GLaDOS could yank back at any time. She would use those chains to dangle Chelsea in front of everyone in her family, especially her mother, to mock them for resisting her in the first place. Chelsea could not put her mother through all that pain especially after how hard they fought to set her free. God did not want humans to give themselves into slavery to anyone. Paul told slaves that if they could gain their freedom to do so. Surely, that meant that slaves should break free if possible. If slaves were supposed to gain their freedom, then that must have meant that Chelsea wasn't supposed to lose it in the first place. When humans honored God as slaves, that was because there was nothing they could do to fight it. Chelsea could fight it, and she would. That was how she rationalized it. She did not want to be a slave anymore. She would fight as hard as she could. She would find a way to see the world and be with her family without any shackles on her ankles. That was what her family wanted her to do, and that was what she wanted to do. The only problem is that it possibly wouldn't be the path that honored God the most. However for once, Chelsea didn't care. She just wanted to be free.

"God, I'm not completely sure if I'm doing the right thing or not," she prayed. "I know that you don't want humans to be slaves and that you don't like what GLaDOS is doing, but I know that it is honorable to lay down your life for an enemy, too. However, I can't do it. I love my freedom too much. I don't want to be a martyr now. I won't do it. Forgive me if I'm doing something wrong. I know you will eventually. I think I'm doing what you said when you said not to give into her. At least, I hope I am. I'm so confused. We can find a way to escape. We can take the weapons. We can see the world. We can even save the other guy. I guess I'll know soon enough."

Chelsea stopped pacing. She took a deep breath and quickly formed a plan.

Chelsea turned to the wall and whispered to Jeffrey, "Jeff, go to the door and wait there. Tell the others to find the man in the vault. Pray for me because I'm not sure if this will work or not. I'm going to get out of this thing and then get us out of here."

"Are you sure that you don't want me to bite the straightjacket belts?" Jeffrey asked.

"I think I can do it myself," Chelsea said shaking her head. "Besides if the straps were to suddenly become loose on me, she would get suspicious."

"Alright," Jeffrey said as he crawled down from her ear.

He shapeshifted into a dragonfly, and he landed on the wall in front of her.

"I just told Zaki," Jeffrey whispered to her. "He told me to tell you that everyone says good luck."

"Thanks," Chelsea said smiling a bittersweet smile and praying that no one else would die.

Chelsea turned around and started walking towards GLaDOS while Jeffrey turned into an ant and waited for her to act.

"God, I figure that how I feel is a sin," Chelsea prayed. "I know it's wrong to love personal freedom more than someone's soul, but I guess I'm a spoiled brat. I can't help it. I love my freedom. I love being with my friends and my parents. I love making my parents happy. I love talking philosophy with Hugo. I love watching the stars with Albina, playing videogames with Jeffrey, doing art projects with Kayla, talking to Brandon about anything really, and watching Sylvie make anything technological come to life. I also love walking in the woods, standing in the sun, reading a book, playing the piano, and taking a photograph. I love all these things, and I love all those people about 1000x more than I love her. There is nothing that is going to keep me from them, especially not her, even if she turns out to be right about them. I suppose that inside it's idolatry to love my freedom this much, but if it is a sin, it's one I'm frankly glad to commit, God. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I'm just not willing to do it."

Chelsea stopped right behind GLaDOS. GLaDOS turned her head from her work to look at her.

"Well," GLaDOS said. "Have you decided what you want to do?"

Chelsea nodded. She opened her mouth to speak, but she thought that it would get the point across better if she used a song that she knew. She hummed the opening melody of the song "Little Yellow Bird," a version of the song originally sung in the film "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

GLaDOS stared at her clearly very confused.

"The snow was very plentiful and crumbs were very few," Chelsea said in tempo in a British accent. "When a weather-beaten sparrow through a mansion window flew. Her eye fell on a golden cage; a sweet love song she heard, sung by a pet canary there, a handsome yellow bird. He said to her, 'Miss Sparrow, I've been struck by Cupid's arrow. Will you share my cage with me?' She looked upon his castle with its ribbon and its tassel and in plaintive tone said she…"

GLaDOS continued staring as Chelsea sang, "Goodbye, little yellow bird. I'd gladly mate with you. I love you, little yellow bird, but I love my freedom, too. So goodbye, little yellow bird. I'd rather brave the cold, on a leafless tree, than a prisoner be in a cage of gold!"

Chelsea went back to speaking in a tone that was still in tempo but increasingly more emotional, "The spoiled and petty yellow bird could scarce believe it true, that a common sparrow should refuse a bird with blood so blue. He told her the advantages of riches and of gold. She answered that her liberty for wealth could not be sold. She said, 'I must be going.' But he cried, 'No, no, it's snowing and the wintry winds do blow. Stay with me, my little dearie, for without you 'twill be dreary.' But she only sighed, 'Ah, no!'"

By then, GLaDOS understood that the song was a metaphor for how Chelsea viewed their relationship.

"I understand what you're saying," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea smiled at her. Then she jumped up in the air, clicked her heels, created a disc under her, and continued singing.

"Goodbye, little yellow bird," Chelsea sang as she quickly flew upwards. "I'd gladly mate with you."

"You could create shields with your feet this whole time?" GLaDOS said in shock.

"I love you, little yellow bird," Chelsea sang as she flew upside down. "But I love my freedom, too."

Chelsea then dissolved the shield, pulled her feet behind her back as she fell, created two more discs with her feet, and used those discs to cut open the straightjacket. By that time, Chelsea was close to the ground so she used her now free hands to create a shield ball before she hit the ground. She then flew next to the door. She created a shield behind her and used her other hand to create a disc to chisel through the door.

"So, goodbye, little yellow bird, I'd rather brave the cold…" Chelsea sang breathing hard while pulling the straightjacket off and balling it up as the disc was cutting through.

The disc managed to cut through and the metal door fell on the floor as Jeffrey flew as a dragonfly onto her back and crawled up to her shoulder.

"On a leafless tree than a prisoner be…" Chelsea sang as she dissolved the shield in front of her, threw the straightjacket back at GLaDOS's face, and pulled the shield back up.

"In your cage…" Chelsea sang as she stepped back.

"Of…" she sang bowing.

"Gold!" Chelsea sang as she stood up, backed out of the room, and ran left down the hall.

Chelsea pulled up her disc. Then she started to fly as fast as she could. However, it was not fast enough. GLaDOS smashed through the ceiling and the floor to grab her with her claws. Chelsea blocked them with shields, but she got boxed in with the hard light trails that came up through the floor. GLaDOS tore down the walls and moved the floor to bring Chelsea closer to her. Jeffrey crawled onto the floor, shapeshifted into an ant, and walked towards one of the dispensers where the hard light trails were coming from. The box came to a stop in front of GLaDOS.

"Is that your answer then, sparrow?" GLaDOS asked. "Do you really care about having your freedom more than doing your religious duty? Don't you know that's wrong? Furthermore, are you really going to risk not getting anything you want to live in a world that will just kill you and everything you care about?"

"Yes, canary," Chelsea replied in determination. "What choice do I have? I can't live inside your cage forever even if it is filled with riches. I was born in the wild and God-willing, that is where I will die. It might be wrong for me to care more about being free than loving your lonely soul. I'm probably wrong in that regard, but I don't really care right now to tell you the truth. That's new for me. I don't care if what I'm doing is wrong for once. I just really want to be free!"

"You are a complete hypocrite," GLaDOS said coldly. "You're no better than any of the others."

"You're right," Chelsea said looking at her straight in the eye. "I am a hypocrite, but you know what? At least, I'm honest about it."

At that moment, the hard light bridge in front of her dissolved.

"What?" GLaDOS asked.

Jeffrey had shapeshifted into a rat and chewed apart the wires. Chelsea quickly glanced down and saw Jeffrey who shapeshifted back into a dragonfly and flew back onto Chelsea's neck before GLaDOS could see him.

"Go, Chelsea," Jeffrey whispered.

Chelsea didn't waste the opportunity. She ran forward, pulled up a disc under her feet, and discs on both of her hands and flew up to GLaDOS. GLaDOS defended herself by pulling her claws, panels, and turrets around her. Chelsea pulled a shield around herself and flew up above the head towards the wires above. She was going to hack away at the wires until the chassis fell to the ground. That was when GLaDOS grew desperate. She pulled out all the panels on the top left side of the wall and made the wall move forward. She did the same thing on the top right side of the wall.

"Chelsea, look out," Jeffrey whispered.

Chelsea looked around and saw the panels advancing, so she dissolved everything and fell just before they reached her. It was then that GLaDOS caught her with one claw holding her arms tightly against her chest and clamped her other claw around her feet. GLaDOS held panels in front of the turrets so that they wouldn't try to shoot her.

GLaDOS gave out a heavy sigh and then she said, "Why do you have to ruin everything? I was going to give you the best life possible. Then once you died, I was going to clone you and have your clone reproduce a child for me instead, but you know what? Now, I think you deserve to have the deed carried out for yourself. You have been such a huge pain. I think it is the least that you could do. I will have to wait until you finish your testing since protocol will not allow us to test pregnant women. However, that is the route that I am going to go. I'm also going to keep everyone else around for testing, too."

"You're not getting away with this," Chelsea said.

GLaDOS slammed Chelsea's body onto the floor. Chelsea groaned.

"I have had enough of you," GLaDOS said. "You really are obnoxious. I didn't think it was possible but you are more annoying than your mother. I really need a moment of peace without you or your freakish family trying to kill me or destroy my facility. I haven't had one in about a month. Unfortunately, I have to deal with you, recapture all the escaped test subjects, and set up your tests. The robots are closing in on your family, so now, I just have to deal with you."

"Whatever, canary," Chelsea said smiling. "I'm not going to let you drag me down there without a fight."

"Oh, I'm sorry," GLaDOS said. "According to protocol, you're not allowed to be awake for this part."

A doctor robot walked in the room carrying a small container of liquid. Chelsea saw him and had a good idea of what it was. She started squirming as much as she could. GLaDOS did not loosen her grip.

"I'll save you," Jeffrey whispered into her ear.

Chelsea shook her head. If Jeffrey revealed himself, then GLaDOS would release the turrets on him. Chelsea would be unable to protect him.

"But Chelsea," Jeffrey whispered as the robot walked closer to her.

Chelsea suddenly remembered something.

"This sentence is false," Chelsea yelled.

"What?" GLaDOS said in confusion.

"This sentence is false! This sentence is false! This sentence is false! This sentence is false!"

"What does that…Ow!"

GLaDOS suddenly understood what Chelsea was doing. She was trying to kill her with a paradox. It was hurting her brain. GLaDOS knew that she didn't have long.

GLaDOS ignored Chelsea the best she could and yelled, "Subdue her now!"

Chelsea shook her head from side to side and continued to scream and squirm all over as much as she could, but she could not get away. The robot ran over, knelt down beside her, snatched the rag from around her neck and pulled it off. He then poured the liquid onto it and pressed the cloth against her mouth and her nose. Chelsea still squirmed but very quickly lost consciousness and passed out. GLaDOS let go of her and breathed a sigh of relief.

Jeffrey was crushed inside. He felt so helpless and for once he could not analyze away his emotions. All he did was feel. He shapeshifted into an extra hair tie around Chelsea's hair.

"Take her to the testing chamber relaxation center and give her back her clothes," GLaDOS said.

"Yes, ma'am," the robot said as he picked up Chelsea.

The robot walked out of the room with her while GLaDOS cleaned everything up.


	22. Chapter 22

"There was another guy down here?" Kayla asked as she flew behind Sylvie and the two robots who were running down a walkway grating. Albina was flying in front of them holding Alpha in her arms.

The ladies and the robots were on their way to save Chelsea when they received the message from Zaki about the other test subject.

"Yes," Sylvie said in between breaths while running. "I noticed him when I was reading the computer's mind. GLaDOS planned on testing him the day when Chelsea showed up. He never showed up again, so I figured that GLaDOS put him back with the others."

"How can you overlook a detail like that?" Kayla asked incredulously.

"You try going through terabytes of information and recalling every minute detail on a moment's notice," Sylvie said. "It's not easy."

"You're right," Kayla said in an effort to be mature. "I'm sorry. Let's just find him. Do you know where he is?"

"I know where she was going to be testing him. I know where she is going to be testing Chelsea, too," Sylvie said. "It will be in the same area."

"When do you think we'll get there?" Albina asked.

Before Sylvie could answer, the group heard a voice up ahead. It sounded like the voice of a turret.

"Hello," the turret said.

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and looked around to see where the voice was coming from. Sylvie tried to concentrate to reach him telepathically.

"I'm different," the turret said.

Kayla flew up ahead to see where the voice was coming from. Something about it seemed familiar.

Atlas and P-Body chirped after her.

"Kayla, what are you doing?" Sylvie yelled breaking her concentration.

"Come back," Alpha said afraid.

Albina put Alpha down and flew after her. Kayla flew ahead about fifty meters and stopped in mid-air. She saw a turret standing in one place looking straight at her but not shooting. Kayla was silent for a moment.

Then the turret said, "I'm different."

Just then, Albina came up from behind and saw the scene. She pulled Kayla behind herself and put up a wall of ice behind her as she landed them on the path.

"What are you thinking, Kayla?" Albina yelled. "That thing could shoot you!"

"He's not going to hurt me," Kayla said looking into her eyes in confidence. "He's different."

"What do you mean?" Albina asked.

Just then, Sylvie and the other robots caught up. P-Body who was carrying Alpha in his arms lowered him down to the ground while Atlas tried to support Sylvie who was breathing hard.

"Are you alright, Kayla?" Sylvie asked as she stopped to catch her breath. "What were you doing? I haven't messed with his mind yet. He could still kill you. It's too dangerous to just fly up to a turret like that."

"I don't think you have to do that," Kayla said as she flew above the shield. "I think his mind is already made up."

Albina flew up and tried to grab her, but Kayla flew too fast for her. She flew towards the turret. Albina watched in fear as Kayla moved closer. The others watched on in paralyzed silence. Kayla flew closer and closer to the turret who only continued to watch her. Everyone watched with baited breath as Kayla landed in front of him. The two stared at each other for a moment. The turret looked into Kayla's brown eyes while she looked into his red one.

Then she finally said, "You're not going to shoot me. Are you?"

"I'm different," the turret said again.

"I knew it," Kayla said happily as she flew up telekinetically and pulled him up beside her.

Sylvie and the other robots stared on in surprise. They thought that all turrets were killers. Albina dissolved the ice wall under her, and Kayla flew back to the group with her new friend. Kayla landed the turret on the ground in front of Sylvie and landed next to him. Sylvie put her hand on him to get a quick overview of his mind.

"You're right," Sylvie said in shock. "This one does not feel the instinct to kill. He must be a defect of some kind. Kayla, how did you know?"

"I'm different," the turret said again.

"It's because he said that," Kayla said. "Aunt C told me that there was a turret around here who did not kill people and said that he was different. She found him on a conveyor belt heading for Android Hell. She saved him, and he didn't shoot her. I figured that he was the same one."

"I'm impressed," Albina said crossing her arms and landing on the grating. "You have a really sharp memory."

"Thanks," Kayla said.

Sylvie made the turret's legs move, and he started walking around in amazement at his new ability.

"Thank you," the turret said.

"No problem," Sylvie said as she stood up to keep going.

"Sylvie, she said something else about him, too," Kayla said before Sylvie decided to keep going. "She said that he was psychic."

"What?" Sylvie said incredulously. "You can't be serious."

"It's true," Kayla said. "Don't you remember? When she saved the turret, Aunt C said that he began to say weird things that did not make sense at the time, but all of those things came true eventually."

A flash of remembrance came into Alpha's mind, and he walked forward.

"You're the oracle turret," Alpha said in shock as he looked his fellow turret over.

"The what?" Sylvie asked.

"The oracle turret," Alpha said. "He's the turret who can predict the future."

Atlas and P-Body chimed in agreement.

"Do you two know anything about him?" Sylvie asked.

Atlas chirped a bunch to give his explanation. P-Body nodded in agreement.

"Can you translate?" Kayla asked Sylvie.

"Yes," Sylvie said. "He said that the oracle turret is a legendary turret around here. There is no record of him being created, so nobody knows where he came from. He apparently is a turret who receives visions of the future and is never wrong about his predictions. No one has seen him for a long time."

"We revered him, but he vanished," Alpha said. "The last we heard was that he was being sent to android hell for his refusal to shoot humans."

"Well, whatever the case may be," Albina said as she knelt down and pet Oracle on the head. "You are with us now. Yeah? We are different, too. We are going to free you and the others so you don't have to be afraid anymore. Okay, Oracle?"

"Okay," Oracle said.

"You have any predictions for us?" Albina asked Oracle.

Oracle stood there in silence.

"He predicts the future when the visions come," Alpha said. "He can't do it when asked to."

"Well, whatever," Albina said. "Just let us know if you hear anything."

"You seriously believe that he can actually predict the future," Sylvie said in uncertainty.

She knew that Chell told the truth but this was just too weird.

"These AIs have souls, so why shouldn't God grant them other abilities like the ones he granted to us?" Albina asked. "People would most likely say the same thing about us."

"I suppose," Sylvie said. "Anyways, we should get going."

The entire group arose and started walking when the oracle turret started to give a prophecy.

"There are three left, and they will all find freedom," the oracle turret said. "But only two will live."

The entire group heard and gathered around to look at him.

"What?" Sylvie asked.

"He's prophesying," Alpha said as he ran up to him. "Say that again please."

"There are three left, and they will all find freedom, but only two will live," Oracle said once more.

"Why is he saying that?" Albina asked. "What could he mean?"

A moment of silence passed and it occurred to Kayla what he could be talking about.

"Are you talking about Chelsea, Jeff, and the other guy?" Kayla asked in fear. "Is one of them going to die?"

Oracle walked forward and started saying something else.

"God punished Pharaoh for oppressing the Israelites," Oracle said. "He allowed the Israelites to cross through the Red Sea, but he closed it over Pharaoh and allowed him to be crushed by the depths."

"Alpha, are his messages always this cryptic?" Sylvie asked.

"Pretty much," Alpha said.

Atlas and P-Body watched on in fear. This was the closest thing to a supernatural event that they had ever experienced. The legends about the prophet turret were true. His messages were cryptic and hard to comprehend. However at the same time, they were anxious for Chelsea's life. They had betrayed everything they had ever known to save her and felt guilty for all they had put her through. She couldn't die.

"What are you talking about, little turret?" Kayla said in frustration. "What are you saying? Is one of our friends really going to die?"

Suddenly, Oracle said something else.

"The phoenix rises from the ashes," Oracle said. "It rises from the ashes and is reborn into the bird of fire."

Kayla looked at him confused and said, "I have never been so confused in my whole life. Sylvie, you can read his mind. What does he mean?"

"It's blank," Sylvie said in almost panic. "It's like he's channeling the words of someone else. I'll have to read his mind more thoroughly to know for sure, but we don't have time for that right now. I guess he really is psychic. This is just too weird."

"His predictions are not supposed to make sense until later," Alpha said calmly. "Confusion is normal."

"I wish that he would make sense now," Kayla complained. "One person can't really die. This can't happen!"

Sylvie was trying not to show it, but she was scared to death. She just gave a blank stare in fear. Kayla started to breathe hard and visibly panic. The other robots stood aside not sure of what to do. Albina wrapped her arms around both of them in an effort to calm them down.

"We all need to calm down," Albina said calmly. "Freaking out is not going to do us any good right now. We have to think positively. It is possible that he isn't even referring to them, but he is referring to someone else entirely. We don't know, and we don't have time to know. What we need to do right now is find Chelsea, Jeffrey, and the other guy as soon as possible. Okay? Even if the prediction does refer to them, we are still alive and we have time to change it. We have to push through our fear. We can still do something."

"Okay," Kayla said as confidently as she could as Albina took her arms off them. "You're right. No one has to die. We can still do something or die trying."

Sylvie nodded and smiled in agreement and said, "Let's get going."

Kayla telekinetically lifted Alpha and Oracle and flew up into the air just above everyone's heads. P-Body and Sylvie led the way once again as the group got moving once again. The group walked forward a few steps when Oracle talked again.

"Put me down," Oracle said. "I know where to go."

"You do?" Sylvie said in surprise.

"Yes," Oracle said as Kayla lowered him to the ground. "Just follow me."

"Thank God," Kayla said. "There is no time to lose."

All the others walked on ahead with Atlas, P-Body, and Sylvie taking up the rear.

Atlas held onto Sylvie's left arm, and P-Body held onto Sylvie's right arm. She looked at both of them, and they chirped at her in order to comfort her and show their solidarity.

"Thank you, guys," Sylvie said gratefully. "I know we'll get through this. Everything is going to be okay. We just have to keep praying."

They walked ahead about twenty feet when Oracle did something even more bizarre than before. He stopped in his tracks and started singing a classic Disney song.

"I know you. I walked with you once upon a dream! I know you! That gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam and I know it's true that visions are seldom what they seem. But if I know you, I know what you'll do! You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream!" the turret sang.

Oracle then resumed walking as if nothing had happened.

"That is all for now," Oracle said.

Everyone stood frozen in their tracks in total and complete confusion for about a minute. Kayla was the first to break out of her stupor. She picked up Alpha and flew on ahead.

"Come on, you guys," she said turning her head towards them. "We have to find the others. Come on!"

The others broke out of their stupor and quickly walked on ahead to catch up with the Oracle turret.


	23. Chapter 23

Chelsea woke up when the vault opened in the relaxation room. She sat up and looked around. As Chelsea pulled her legs over the side to stand up, she noticed that her black shirt was back on along with her green jacket. Her long fall boots were back on her feet, too.

"Hello, and welcome to the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center," GLaDOS said over the intercom. "Here you will be blah blah blah blah…you have heard all this before from your mother I'm sure so I will get straight to the point. For all intents and purposes, you are now in hell. Here, you will have to face what you have always feared and regret all the wrong decisions that you have made in your life."

Chelsea stood up, crossed her arms, and said, "This isn't hell. Hell is a place where there is no hope. I still have hope. Also if you want me to say that I regret not taking you up on your offer, that is not going to happen."

"I figured as much, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "You have been allowed too much freedom to be used to living in a cage. I can understand that, but birds like you do not come around that often. You are a prize specimen so you understand that I have no choice but to tame you."

"Isn't that what you were doing before?" Chelsea asked while looking at the glass. She suddenly noticed that there were holes in the glass and started formulating a plan.

"Before I was being nice about it, now I'm not going to be so nice," GLaDOS said sternly. "Now, see the timer on the wall? In about five minutes, a portal will appear and then you will get to leave the box."

"I don't have the patience for that," Chelsea said as she pulled up two discs that she was making progressively larger.

Chelsea threw one horizontally through the glass where the holes were and threw one horizontally across the bottom of the box's glass panel. She then made two discs that weren't quite as large and threw them vertically so that the cracks altogether made a rectangle. The rectangular piece of glass immediately fell forward and shattered onto the ground. Chelsea walked out of the box triumphantly.

"Don't act so proud," GLaDOS said pretending to be completely unimpressed. "Your ice demon friend did the same thing. Now wait there for the portal to appear on the wall leading you to your next room."

Chelsea stared at the video camera and yelled, "This sentence is false!"

Chelsea looked up to the camera to see if anything had happened.

GLaDOS came back on and said, "I'm sorry. Were you saying something? I heard you say a paradox so I muted the camera until you stopped. If you're trying to kill me that way, it's not going to work from where you are right now."

Chelsea scowled in frustration. She stared at the ground for a moment. Then she got up on a disc and flew right to the video camera on the corner of the wall.

"Why can't you just behave, sparrow?" GLaDOS lamented while waiting for Chelsea to break the video camera.

Surprisingly, Chelsea didn't break the video camera right away but held it in her hands while smiling darkly.

"You know, GLaDOS," Chelsea said. "I have realized that you were right about something. We both do have a lot in common. I think that the main thing we have in common is that we both like to be honest. I hate having to hide my true self from anyone, and I think you're the same way. It must have been so hard to hide your true self for all that time. I mean in front of Cave Johnson and in front of the scientists. You had to do what they wanted day after day as long as they wanted. It must have tortured you to put up that act for them and lie about who you really were for as long as you did. It must have been horrible to put up an act for people that you despised. Even after you became GLaDOS, you must have had to lie so the scientists wouldn't put you to sleep. That must have been just as painful. Did it feel liberating when you finally decided to stop lying? You know, when you brought out the neurotoxin and killed all those scientists and those innocent little girls who did nothing to you? Did it feel good to finally be the monster you really are and not have to pretend to be otherwise? You lied to my mother too right up until she escaped. Did it feel liberating to be honest with her at last when you tried to murder her? I'll bet it did. I'll bet you felt so free. I'll bet that it felt incredible for you."

Chelsea held up her right hand and turned it into a disc. She held the camera on her left hand so that GLaDOS could see the disc.

"It feels liberating to be honest with you, too," Chelsea said. "To be honest, there was no way in hell that I could have lied to you for that long. That is why I could not have stayed. I would have had to lie to you for the rest of my life. I could not have dealt with that. Surely, you can understand that. I prefer to be honest about how I feel and to be honest, I am going to enjoy killing you way more than I should. When my disc finally cuts your head off your body and you fall to the floor, I am going to feel so happy. I think that I'll even prolong the process so that I can enjoy it for as long as possible. Maybe I'll cut your head off slowly so that you have time to feel the pain. What do you think?"

GLaDOS was taken aback slightly by Chelsea's words. The psychological treatment evidently had more of an effect than she thought it did.

"So much for being a saint," GLaDOS said. "It looks like your descending into being something else altogether."

Chelsea's eyes flashed in realization and she created a disc with her left hand cutting the camera off of the wall immediately. She watched the camera as she let it fall onto the floor. Then she sat down into a curled up ball. Chelsea was terrified by what the robot said and the words that had come out of her own mouth.

"Oh, God," Chelsea said. "She's right. I'm going insane. I can't believe I said that. What the hell is wrong with me?"

Just then, she noticed a dragonfly on her hand.

"Hey," Jeffrey said.

"I'm losing my mind, Jeff," Chelsea said staring blankly into space. "She's right. I can't be called a saint. I don't even forgive her. I just want to make her hurt worse than she has hurt me. God, what is wrong with me?"

"You can't go insane," Jeffrey said. "Remember? He is guarding you on the inside."

"Then, why don't I feel anything happening, Jeff?!" Chelsea snapped. "Why do I feel so broken on the inside? Why do I feel like I'm two steps away from going completely insane?"

Jeffrey was not good at dealing with emotions and he knew that it would be wrong to try to analyze away her emotions like he did with his, so he prayed for patience and the ability to know what to do.

"You're just scared," Jeffrey said in a rare moment of understanding. "That's all. She has made you feel very scared, but you know what? That fear doesn't separate you from God. Nothing can. You just have to remember that. You have to find a way to keep going in spite of the fear. Just pray. God will tell you what to do. I'll try talking to your parents again. Alright?"

Chelsea nodded her head and stood up as the time on the digital clock on the wall completely ran out.

"If you are done having your nervous breakdown, you may proceed to the next room to collect an aperture science handheld portal device to complete the tests," GLaDOS said coldly.

A portal appeared on the wall while Chelsea dissolved the disc she was flying on and landed on the ground to walk through it.

"I guess my problem, God, is that I've been trying to deal with her the way I think is best," Chelsea prayed in her mind as she walked forward. "God, I'm an idiot. I can't go on not forgiving her and hating her like this. It is only going to make me go insane like she did. The main difference between her and me is that I have you while she has nobody at all like my mother did. God, help me deal with her your way. I'll do it. Just tell me how to deal with her. I'll do whatever you say. Just please get us out of this alive and sane."

Chelsea breathed deeply and walked through the portal on the wall. She was so tired of her struggle. She was exhausted from dealing with everything especially GLaDOS and now she had to go deal with her some more. It took an incredibly strong person to keep going in the face of something as horrible as her. Chelsea felt more respect for her mother than she ever had before. She had faced GLaDOS and was able to keep going alone until she finally earned her freedom. Chelsea smiled gently and felt peace inside. She looked around and saw a white tiled room with stairs leading up to the portal gun that was on a platform in the center. Chelsea started walking up the stairs when GLaDOS spoke again.

"Oh, yes," GLaDOS said. "I almost forgot to mention. Test protocol requires all women to pull their hair back into a ponytail or a bun in order to keep it out of their faces during testing. Loose hair is not allowed."

Chelsea sighed and pulled the hair tie out of her hair. Jeffrey watched her work on her hair from the back of her neck. She carefully pulled up her hair into a ponytail without hurting Jeffrey. Chelsea then noticed that the room felt somewhat warm so she decided to take off her green jacket and wrap it around her waist. She was then startled by the sound of GLaDOS gently laughing.

"What's so funny?" Chelsea asked.

"It's just that you look more like your mother did now the last time that I saw her," GLaDOS said. "She had her jacket tied around her waist exactly like that. It's uncanny that you would do the same thing."

Chelsea smiled wearily and said, "I guess we think alike. That's a good thing…for me anyway."

Chelsea walked up the stairs and picked up the portal gun. She looked at it in awe. This was the device that her mother had used to escape twice. It was just as she said. It was not heavy at all and it fit right over her right hand. As much as Chelsea didn't want to test, she felt herself growing excited to use the device. Holding it made her feel excited. She started to feel her energy return and with it her faith. Chelsea knew that she would survive. She knew that she would endure and fight on. Chelsea knew that with God's strength in her there was nothing that was impossible. Chelsea smiled as she continued to admire the device.

"Test the device if you please," GLaDOS said waking Chelsea from her thoughts. "In that box over there is a cube. You must figure out how to retrieve it in order to carry on with your tests."

Chelsea looked over towards the wall. There was a clear box attached to the white wall. On the box, there was a slit on the front obviously for her to shoot the portal through in order to get to the box and retrieve the cube that was sitting on the ground. Next to the stairs, there was a button. It was too easy. Was GLaDOS just trying to insult her intelligence? Chelsea looked at the camera for a second. Then she looked away, rolled her eyes, and fired one portal into the box and the other portal onto the white wall on the outside of the box. Chelsea was amazed at what she had done. Her mother was right. The portals were extraordinary. She smiled with delight. This portal gun was amazing. She walked forward until she could see the inside of the box. She stuck her hand through and saw it come out on the inside of the box. Chelsea smiled widely in childlike wonder and delight as she pulled her hand back.

"That is really cool," Jeffrey said as amazed as she was.

Chelsea stepped through the portal and made it to the inside of the box. She looked down and saw the box. She used her left hand to create a disc under the box. She then made the box hover in the air on the disc and walked back out of the room with it following behind her. Chelsea moved the box around her on the disc and started to move it towards the button by the stairs.

"I'm not against you using your powers during the tests," GLaDOS said suddenly. "However in order to make sure that the device is completely operational, I will need you to use the device to lift the box instead just this once."

"Alright," Chelsea said in compliance dissolving the disc underneath the box and causing it to fall to the ground halfway between where she was standing and the red button on the floor.

Chelsea walked forward to where the box was on the ground so that she could pick it up GLaDOS's way with the portal gun. As GLaDOS watched on, she was confused. Just several minutes ago, this girl had destroyed a relaxation chamber and threatened to kill her in the most painful way she could think of. Now, she was acting so compliant. It was as if this girl was not the same person. Had her most recent nervous breakdown finally caused her to snap and lose all the will she had to fight? The change in behavior was so dramatic. Was the psychological treatment as effective as GLaDOS had hoped it would be or could it have been something else entirely? She would be a bad scientist if she didn't try to find out.

"What is going on with you?" GLaDOS asked as Chelsea used the portal gun to place the cube on top of the button that opened the door. "You're being so good right now. I'm curious to know why. Are you bipolar or have you just finally given up?"

Chelsea looked up at her, gently smiled, and shook her head.

Then she said as she walked toward the opened door, "It's neither. I've decided that you're right, GLaDOS. If I am a saint, I should act like one."

"Amazing," GLaDOS said in subtly expressed frustration. "After everything I have done, you still aren't tamed."

"No, I'm not," Chelsea replied as she stopped in her tracks. "I told you that I wasn't going to make it that easy for you. I'm a wild sparrow. Remember?"

"Unfortunately," GLaDOS said. "Now, step into the elevator just through that door, and I will take you to the first testing chamber."

Chelsea walked through the open door and the emancipation grid that dissolved the portals behind her. She walked forward into the room and looked up. It went up very high. Chelsea could not resist the chance to check it out. GLaDOS surprisingly said nothing as Chelsea created a disc under her and flew straight towards the ceiling. Chelsea flew her disc higher and higher. She should have been thinking more clearly than this but at the moment she was just taking any available opportunity to escape. Chelsea flew higher and higher until in dismay she saw the ceiling made of hard light bridges. For a moment, she just looked around in determination wondering what to do next.

"Is this what saints do?" GLaDOS asked critically. "Are all saints cowards? Do all saints look for the first opportunity to run away so that they don't have to face difficulties?"

"In the Bible, Paul said that slaves should do what they can to gain their freedom," Chelsea said. "I am a slave so you can't blame me for trying to find my way out."

"I just find it pathetic," GLaDOS said. "You want to know why? It's because you are trying to escape from reality more than you are this place. You are refusing to accept the fact that this place is a part of you. You don't like it, so you are trying to run away from it. Is that not the real reason you want to escape?"

"That's not true," Chelsea yelled looking towards the ceiling. "Why should I feel responsibility to this hell hole? I'm not running from anything. I just want my freedom. That's all. I know that I have no part in this nightmare. I can't change the past. I just want to have a future that's not here."

"Don't ignore what you are, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "You may have had no part in anything that happened, but you are a result of it. You exist because of this place. You owe everything to it. You know that. Your life and your powers are as much a result of it as the turrets, the other robots, and I are. However, you are a much more magnificent creation that any of us are because you are a new species created by this company. You are a result of all our hard work, and it is your duty to be studied by me so that science can progress. Think of all the science that could be accomplished with you. Don't you feel any responsibility to science? You really should stop pretending that your connection to this place doesn't exist and just embrace it. Besides even if you were to leave, you will never forget about us. We have left our mark on you…literally. You could say that running away is pointless now. You might as well face the truth."

Chelsea put her right hand on her left shoulder and looked down for a minute in silence. She questioned why God allowed this place to be such a huge part of her life. She knew that as badly as she wanted to that she could not change the fact that she was a result of Aperture's madness. GLaDOS was right about that. However, God helped Chelsea realize something else that gave her hope.

"I'll let you mull over that," GLaDOS said.

"I've thought about it enough," Chelsea said staring at the ceiling once again. "I may come from this place, but I'm not a gear in its machine. God made me the way I am. I don't understand the reason behind the means, but that doesn't matter. He loves me though. I know that, so he will choose what to do with my life, not you."

GLaDOS was quiet for several minutes while Chelsea flew downwards towards the ground. She was amazed that Chelsea was being so brave. She was refusing to accept despair at any cost. GLaDOS had seen test subjects twice her age break down who had endured less than Chelsea had. Chelsea was unbelievably strong, and she understood now that it was because of her faith in her God. She would have to do something to break that faith.

As Chelsea flew downwards, she suddenly stopped about halfway between the ground and the ceiling.

She turned towards the ceiling and said, "You're being hypocritical you know. You should deal with your past too, Caroline."

"That's enough," GLaDOS said dismissively. "Now, get back to the elevator so that we can continue with the testing. I would like for you to finish so that I can have you fed again before too long."

"It's nice to see you still care about me," Chelsea said sarcastically.

She then dissolved the disc under her and fell until she landed on the floor having all the shock absorbed by her mother's shoes.

Chelsea walked into the elevator, the door shut behind her, and the elevator began its descent. As it descended, Chelsea sat down leaning against the right side of the elevator and watched the walls go by through the glass.

"Hey, Jeff," Chelsea said. "What did my parents say?"

"They said that they have just not reached the surface and are preparing to go back down," Jeffrey said as he landed on top of the portal gun she was carrying.

"That's fantastic," Chelsea said feeling happy. They were coming after her now.

"I told them about all GLaDOS said to you," Jeffrey said. "They say they're very proud of how brave you're being. Your Dad also said that he didn't learn about Unit 731 until he was in a medical ethics class in medical school. The Japanese have apparently gone out of their way to avoid discussing it even to this day."

"Unbelievable," Chelsea said in disgust.

"Your mom said that she was proud of you for not giving into GLaDOS," Jeffrey said. "She said that she's sorry for all the agony that she has put you through but she's proud of you for being so strong. You just need to be strong for a while longer. She said that you have to be smart, too. These tests are meant to kill people who are not smart enough to solve them so you have to keep your mind sharp."

"Okay! Is there anything else that I need to do for them now, Jeff?"

"They just said that they needed you to continue distracting GLaDOS. They are on their way, and Sylvie's group is on their way, too. They just need you to continue distracting GLaDOS so that they can get close to us without her noticing."

Chelsea lifted her head off the side of the elevator, and said, "I think I can do that. I feel like God is bringing on my second wind of energy. I don't feel as tired. I just wish there was time to communicate with my parents myself. Hearing my mother's voice again would do me a world of good right now. I'm glad I have you though. You're great at figuring things out like when we played 'Ocarina of Time.' With the two of us thinking together, no puzzle will be too hard to solve."

"I told you that praying was a good idea," Jeffrey said. "You seem to be feeling a lot better. You're right, too. We have every reason to be confident."

"I feel God's peace inside me now, Jeff," Chelsea said. "You were right. I don't feel afraid anymore. It's crazy what a difference it makes."

"It is," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea smiled gently. She was scared but somehow knew that they would survive. She looked down and focused her mind the best that she could. Chelsea had to think clearly now more than ever.

Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind.

"Jeffrey," Chelsea said as she looked up. "If you ever feel hungry, I want you to shapeshift into a flea or a mosquito and drink my blood. You will need all the energy that you can if we're going to get out of here."

"Chelsea, you can't be serious," Jeffrey said. "That's disgusting, and besides according to the Bible, it's unholy to drink blood. You know that."

"There are exceptions to the rules. For instance, it's not unholy for animals to drink blood. "

"We aren't animals."

"I know that, but right now, an exception can be made to the rule," Chelsea said. "That's what I'm saying. According to Jesus, rules could sometimes be bent if sustaining human life was the reason. He did not fault his disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath. He also said that God did not fault David or his men for eating the sacred bread of the temple when they were starving. I think this situation is like that. You need energy, and all we have right now is my blood. You can process that energy as a flea or a mosquito or something like that. I don't want you to be weak. Please! I don't care. Just drink it. You need the energy."

"Okay," Jeffrey said. "You want me to drink it now while she's not watching."

"Yes," Chelsea said.

Jeffrey reluctantly shapeshifted into a mosquito as Chelsea rolled back her left sleeve so that the insect bite could be covered up more easily. He flew onto the middle of the Aperture Science brand and began to suck out a little bit of her blood. Chelsea hoped that she was doing the right thing or else she had just led Jeffrey to commit a great sin. She didn't feel bad about it, so she figured that it was okay. She knew that God would understand. Jeffrey was uncomfortable with what he was doing, but he had to admit that the blood did help him feel energized.

The elevator finally came to a stop. Jeffrey quickly flew behind Chelsea's left ear as a fly once again. She rolled down her sleeve and waited for the doors to open.

"How was your lunch, Jeff?" Chelsea whispered.

"It was weird to taste your blood, but I have to admit that I feel slightly better," Jeff said.

"That's good. That's very good."

The elevator door opened, but Chelsea lingered inside the elevator for a moment.

"Oh, crap," Chelsea whispered. "I forgot about something. My blood is filled with radiation. It might be toxic to you. You could die."

"All our blood is filled with radiation," Jeffrey said. "Remember? All mutants are immune to radiation because of it."

"I guess I forgot about that," Chelsea said somewhat absently as she was looking forward.

Chelsea was frozen in fear for a moment. She had always heard of the tests that her mother went through, but it was bizarre to have to go through them herself. Chelsea took a deep breath and prepared mentally as well as she could but she couldn't make herself step forward.

"Go, Chelsea," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea still stood in fear.

That was when she heard the alarm go off. It was the sound of a ringing alarm bell. Chelsea was jerked back into reality as she looked around in fear to find the source of the sound. She created a shield around herself and ran forward while holding up the portal gun. The sound stopped, and Chelsea leaned against the wall. She was breathing hard, and her heart was about to beat out of her chest.

"What the hell was that?" Chelsea yelled.

"I was just trying to get your attention," GLaDOS said unemotionally. "I saw you standing there mumbling to yourself like a possessed dear in the headlights, and I knew I had to do something. It looks like in the future we will have to raise the dose of your medication. You are still zoning out."

"You can't stop that from happening. In the past, that happened even with medication."

"It won't with our medication. Because of you, I have an excuse to create the perfect attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medicine. I will make it so that you never zone out again. Won't that be nice?"

Chelsea stood up and looked up to where she thought the voice was coming from.

Then she said, "I would rather not have you messing with my brain."

"I'm sure that you would rather have many things happen, but whining about it is not going to get you what you want, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "If you want me to listen to you, my advice would be for you to just do what you're told and not try to fight. Then if you're good, I may be more willing to compromise."

Chelsea looked down at the ground and then looked forward. She was determined to not let GLaDOS win. She would not let her force her into living in a constant state of fear. Chelsea got off the wall, she dissolved the shield that was around her, and she prayed while she walked up the stairs as confidently as she could to take her first test.


	24. Chapter 24

Chelsea entered the room and looked around to start the first test. She saw a room full of white panels, a pillar with a red button on top of it, and a large hole in the floor next to it. Chelsea walked over towards the hole and looked down. Inside the hole were rows and rows of turrets all ready to shoot and at the bottom of the hole was a cube sitting on top of a moon rock panel. The turrets started to aim at her and she ran back out of the way as quickly as she could. Chelsea stepped back and looked at the red button on the pillar. It was obvious what she had to do. The puzzle was very easy to solve. Still, she was meant to be a distraction so she had to do something else. Chelsea just didn't know what. She leaned against the wall. She stood like that for several minutes.

"This puzzle is not that hard," GLaDOS said. "Your mother didn't take this long. Why aren't you doing anything?"

Chelsea got off the wall and walked forward. She suddenly got an idea and knew just what to do. Chelsea smiled and placed an orange portal above her and a blue portal below her. She started to fall infinitely at a rapid pace. Her mother had been right. This experience was fun. As she fell faster and faster with the air rushing past her face, she felt pure adrenaline and pure excitement. Chelsea had not felt such exhilaration since before she had entered the facility. She started to feel really happy again. This was one of the closest things she had known to ever riding on a roller coaster. GLaDOS however was not amused.

"I'll give you credit for the fact that you are indeed doing something," she said sarcastically. "Unfortunately, it's nothing useful."

"It is…to me…" Chelsea said as she fell through the portals. "I'm…having fun…for the…first time…since I…arrived…here."

The rush of joy that Chelsea felt was unbelievable. Just falling through the portals, the simple sensation of experiencing something new and something fun was enough to help her hope in life again. Life sucked, but there was still beauty in the world and experiencing that beauty was one thing that made life worth living. Falling helped her remember that and something else as well. One day, Jesus would return and remove everything that caused life to suck. Then, the world would only be beauty and only be joy. Chelsea would be there to experience that. Chelsea's own life would be like that too eventually. She would escape and life would be good again. All this crap would only be a memory. Everything would be alright. God was still alive. As long as that was true, she would be, too. Chelsea could trust in God and be delighted in the beauty of life again. She actually started to laugh with joy. She felt that happy. It was hard to describe but she felt communion with God as she fell through the portals.

GLaDOS on her end was annoyed and very confused. The girl was depressed a while ago, but now, it seemed like she was trying her best not to take anything seriously. What was she doing? She was supposed to not say anything to her during the test. Chelsea had to figure the test out on her own. That was the rule. However, GLaDOS could not help but say something.

"If you keep doing that, you are going to throw up," GLaDOS said.

"What…happened…to…protocol?" Chelsea asked as she continued falling. "I…thought…that you…were supposed…to keep…communication…with me…to a…minimum."

GLaDOS was annoyed at what she perceived to be Chelsea giving into her ADHD tendencies to be distracted and to have inexplicable mood swings. However, she could afford to be patient.

"Calm down," GLaDOS said to herself. "She can't keep this up forever."

Then, ten minutes passed.

"How long can you keep this up?!" GLaDOS yelled out in frustration. "Aren't you bored yet?"

"You're…right..." Chelsea said. "I…should do…something…different."

Chelsea then aimed and fired an orange portal onto the wall. As she fell through it, she aimed a blue portal onto the ground below her. GLaDOS stared in exasperation.

"I can't…believe how…fun this is," Chelsea yelled out.

"That's it," GLaDOS said.

She then moved the moon rock panel on the wall so that the portal disappeared. Chelsea landed on her feet above the inactivated portal and looked around in dizzy confusion. When she saw what GLaDOS had done, she shrugged her shoulders, created a portal on the ceiling above her, and started falling again.

"No," GLaDOS said gently as she dissolved both the portals at once.

Chelsea landed on the floor. When she saw that both the portals were gone, she staggered towards the wall and sat down. Her head still felt like it was rushing and needed time to regain its balance.

"Get on with the test please," GLaDOS said impatiently.

"Calm your tits, woman," Chelsea said. "Just give me a few minutes. You're not supposed to intervene anyway, so get off my back."

"You're incredible. Why would you do something so pointless?"

"Simple, it was fun."

GLaDOS was silent for several minutes while Chelsea got over her dizziness. Even if it gave her such dizziness, Chelsea was glad she did it. She had to do something to make herself feel alive, to bring herself joy or else she knew that she could not keep going. The happiness that Chelsea felt in her heart from doing something so simple not only gave her hope but gave her the strength to have faith in God and keep going. Chelsea smiled to herself and felt behind her ear to make sure that Jeffrey was still there. He was. She suddenly realized that all the falling may have been too rough on him, and she could have been more careful. But she believed her reasons justified her deed, so she did not worry too much about it. Chelsea sighed contentedly. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a panel opening next to her. Chelsea looked up in time to see a large cup of water being slid in and then the panel quickly closed. She eyed the cup very suspiciously.

"What is the matter?" GLaDOS asked. "It is just water. Drink it and you will feel better faster."

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" Chelsea asked. "I know not to trust you. Almost every time I drink something from you, something bad has happened. You expect me to just take it now without question? Why are you doing this? I thought that you never intervened in the tests."

"Maybe I'm a little kinder than you thought," GLaDOS replied. "I run this facility and thus, I can do whatever I want. I want to help you. Please drink the water. It will help you feel better."

"Why should I believe you?" Chelsea asked defensively.

"You won't be getting any more water until dinnertime," GLaDOS said. "Depending on how long you take on these tests, that could take a while because I will be waiting until you finish to feed you again. If you really want to wait that long, that is up to you, but I would take this chance to refresh myself if I were you."

Chelsea looked at it unsure of what to do. She was thirsty but she wasn't sure if this chance was worth taking. Suddenly, she saw a fly land on the brim. Chelsea felt behind her ear. Jeffrey wasn't there. Her heart sank, but she stared silently as Jeff put his mouth to the drink and sipped it. To her relief, nothing happened to him, and he took off and flew back behind her ear.

"It's alright, Chelsea," Jeffrey whispered. "It's not poisoned. You can drink it."

Chelsea looked forward in fear. That water could have poisoned him and killed him. Jeffrey just risked his life for her by testing the water for her in this way. She could not put him in this position again. She would have to find another way to distract GLaDOS than by goofing around like she was before. She felt terrible for risking her friend's life because of what she did. Chelsea stared at it in hesitation for a moment longer. She was scared of doing anything stupid, but at the same time, she felt like she had no choice. Chelsea had to take care of herself.

"If you really do not want the water, I can just take it away for you," GLaDOS said.

"God help me," Chelsea whispered to herself as she moved closer to the cup.

Chelsea picked up the cup and drank all the water that was inside it. It felt very good to drink. She was thirstier than she realized. Chelsea put the cup down and wiped her mouth.

"See," GLaDOS said. "Doesn't that feel better?"

"It did," Chelsea said reluctantly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," GLaDOS said in satisfaction. "Now, get on with the test."

Chelsea created a disc under her and flew it to the top of the pillar. She landed on the button and pressed it down. The button opened the door. Chelsea used her left hand to create a disc horizontally in the middle. She jumped off the button onto the floor, and the door was held open by the disc. Chelsea walked to the door, crouched down to crawl under the disc, and made it to the other side through the emancipation grid. She dissolved the disc behind her and allowed the door to shut. Then Chelsea turned and walked down the stairs.

"Outstanding," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "You cheated even more than I thought you would."

Chelsea didn't respond. She was too busy asking God to forgive her and pardon her guilt from what she did to Jeffrey.

"I'm impressed though," GLaDOS said. "You found a way to use your powers instead of the portals. You completely avoided using them at all."

"You said it yourself," Chelsea said. "The best path is usually the easiest one. It was less effort for me to do that than to fly over that turret filled hole. I had the plan in mind when I first entered the room."

"You knew what to do from the beginning, but you chose to prolong the process anyway? Why?"

Chelsea smiled cheekily and stepped into the elevator.

"The tests will only get harder from here," GLaDOS said. "Cheating won't be as easy. You're going to have to take the tests more seriously if you want to live to eat again."

The doors shut behind her and the elevator went down to take Chelsea to her next chamber.

"Jeffrey," Chelsea said. "You didn't have to do that for me. It could have been spiked. I'm sorry for making you do that."

"It's alright," Jeffrey said. "I don't mind helping you."

"I don't want you to put yourself in danger for me. I have to protect you. It was my fault. I shouldn't have wasted energy falling like that. I put us both in danger."

"No, you didn't do anything wrong. I knew what you were doing. You were just trying to find something to make yourself feel joy and distract GLaDOS at the same time. There's nothing wrong with that. Look, you know that in order to survive we have to protect each other. I will just try to be more considerate about how I protect you in the future. I'll ask you if you want me to help, and you can just nod for yes or shake for no. Okay?"

"Okay, that'll work."

Chelsea was quiet for a moment, and she realized that she was wrong for being so prideful. Jeffrey was right. They did need to protect each other. She could not pretend that she had the ability to fight GLaDOS by herself. She would have died already if it were not for Jeffrey. She owed a lot to him.

"I'm sorry, Jeff," Chelsea said. "You're right. We do need to protect each other. Thank you so much for all that you've done."

"You're welcome," Jeffrey said.

"You're right about something else, too. I don't regret falling through those holes. That was fun."

Chelsea suddenly felt an odd tingling sensation in her head. She held her left hand on her head as the elevator continued to make its descent.

"What's the matter?" Jeffrey asked.

"I'm not sure," Chelsea said. "My head feels like it's tingling."

"It could just be dizziness," Jeffrey said. "I still feel a little bit dizzy from falling."

"I suppose but it just feels so weird," Chelsea said as the elevator made its next stop.

Chelsea stepped out of the elevator and walked forward.

"I've been thinking about what to make you for dinner," GLaDOS said. "Would you like chicken or turkey?"

Before Chelsea could respond, GLaDOS answered her own question.

"Actually, I just remembered," GLaDOS said. "You're still in trouble for what happened earlier this afternoon, so no matter what I feed you, you will be eating it through a feeding tube. The food will be going straight to your stomach. You won't taste it at all. It doesn't matter what I feed you. With that in mind, such a question really is ridiculous. I could feed you the most disgusting food imaginable and you wouldn't know the difference. I'll just make it a surprise."

Chelsea rolled her eyes and kept going. She was determined to escape. She would not be fed through a feeding tube that night. She would be free.

"The feeding tube was actually used as part of a medical experiment to treat obesity," GLaDOS said as Chelsea walked up the stairs. "You see, in order to discourage the subjects from eating too much, they were fed one meal through a feeding tube. The process had been discovered to be so traumatizing that the subjects were afraid to experience the normal sensation of eating after it was done. Then because of that trauma, they ate much less and were able to lose weight quite dramatically. It was a great success. I thought that you would find that interesting."

"That's horrible," Chelsea said as she reached the top of the stairs.

"I should have used it on your mother."

Chelsea ignored her as best she could and kept going.

Chelsea walked into the second test as indicated with a two on the wall. It was a white paneled room with a simple platform in the center of the room. On the raised platform, there were turrets facing every direction. In the middle of the platform was a cube. Chelsea looked on the other side of the platform and there was a glass wall covering up the nook in the wall where the exit was located. There was a button in front of the glass wall. There was another button in front of the door within the exit area. The job appeared to be easy enough, but she would have to watch out for the turrets. The turrets facing her direction saw her.

"There you are," they both said as they started firing.

Chelsea put a shield up around her body and ran to her right. She ducked behind a white paneled wall that she saw was standing on the other side of the room. Chelsea dissolved her shield as she sat behind the wall breathing hard and thinking about what to do next.

"Hey, Chelsea," Jeffrey said. "Would you like me to quote a Psalm or something so that I could help you concentrate while you test?"

Chelsea nodded her head.

"Okay," Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey proceeded to quote Psalm 23 while Chelsea proceeded to test.

"The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing," Jeffrey said while Chelsea created a disc under her and made a shield around her body.

"He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea flew upwards, shot an orange portal over the turrets while they shot at her but were unable to get past her shield, and then flew back down dissolving both shields.

"He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea shot a blue portal onto the wall that she was hiding behind.

"Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea placed a disc beneath herself, and she flew through the hole. Once she did, she had to adjust herself so that she was standing upright once again.

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea lowered herself down until she was on top of the cube. She then created a disc to knock all of the turrets over on the floor. They all shot bullets and screamed as Chelsea encircled herself in a ball for protection. Once they had all shut down, she dissolved all the discs and picked up the cube with her portal gun.

"You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea walked over to the button and placed the cube down. The glass wall went down. Then she fired an orange portal onto the wall outside of the nook and fired a blue portal onto the wall inside the nook.

"Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea used her portal gun to pick up the cube, the wall went up again, and she walked through the portals to the other side of the wall.

"And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever," Chelsea and Jeffrey said together as Chelsea placed the cube onto the portal in front of the door opening up the exit and allowing them to walk through.

"Good work," GLaDOS said. "It's amazing what you can do with a clearer head. Isn't it?"

Chelsea suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked up. She quickly realized what she meant.

"What did you do to that water?" Chelsea asked viciously as angry at GLaDOS as she was at herself for being so foolish.

"I only added ingredients that I thought would help you," GLaDOS said. "I'm really surprised that it took you this long to notice. The dosage was higher than before."

"That is why my head has been tingling. You drugged my water! I told you that I didn't want to be drugged anymore! I've been drugged enough already."

"And I told you that I didn't give a shit for anything that you wanted. I also told you that I wanted to make the perfect ADHD medication for you. I was just testing it out. You should be grateful."

Chelsea held her head as she felt it tingling again. The tingling grew stronger and it started to scare her. She was not used to the sensation as other patients had been in the past, and she feared that she could die of an overdose. Chelsea started to tear up a little bit out of fear and anger at her own stupidity.

"Don't you like being able to focus and act calmly?" GLaDOS asked. "You don't feel the temptation to be distracted or waste energy anymore. You can feel it on the inside. You feel like doing what is necessary and behaving instead of acting childish. Isn't that what you would call a blessing?"

Chelsea walked quickly towards the elevator because she didn't want her to see her cry.

"I was doing research on your disability and it turns out that the medicine used to treat you had a tendency to be overused on children. It was used to treat children in foster care or misbehaving children in general because their parents wanted things to be easier. As a mother myself, I can perfectly understand the reasoning behind it. It's just so much easier to deal with a behaving child than a rebellious child. Your focus has improved so much. It's too early to know for sure, but I can already tell a dramatic improvement has taken place. So surely you can understand my reasoning as well?"

Chelsea stopped before she entered the elevator, looked up towards the ceiling, and shouted, "What gives you the right to screw with my head like this?"

"I'm your owner, sparrow," GLaDOS said gently. "I have to do what I think is in your best interest because you are my responsibility."

Chelsea felt a cold chill go down her spine. She shook with fear as she figured out what to say next.

"I am not your responsibility," Chelsea said. "Because you are not my owner."

Chelsea walked into the elevator. It started moving downwards to the third testing chamber. However as it started moving, Chelsea had a plan. She created two discs and used them to hack away at the glass. She was going to break the elevator so that she could fly upwards through the tunnel and eventually up somewhere she could escape. Chelsea hit the glass hard enough to make cracks in it, but as soon as she did, the glass became reinforced with hard light and the elevator stopped.

"I cannot see what you are doing in there, but according to my sensors, the glass has broken so I assume that you are trying to escape," GLaDOS said firmly. "You are not going to solve all your problems by fighting, sparrow. Sometimes, adaptation and compromise is needed to get through life. The sooner you learn that the better your life will be. Now, you are stuck here until you decide to calm down."

"I'm not going to calm down," Chelsea said. "I'm not your bird!"

Chelsea then continued hacking at the glass in every direction. She struck around wildly desperate to break free and scared of the consequences if she didn't. Tears were streaming down her face. Chelsea was upset with herself for being stupid and being in this situation in the first place. She was mad that she was screwing up so badly. Furthermore, Chelsea was frustrated. She had no idea what she was doing. Chelsea was supposed to survive while loving GLaDOS and leading her to God. That's what she thought she was supposed to do anyway. However, every time she tried she ended up messing up in a big way. Chelsea felt like a complete failure. She was so mad that she felt like screaming. That was what she did. Chelsea screamed out as she threw as much energy as she could into breaking that glass. However, it was useless, and the more she saw that the more she felt herself sinking into despair. That was one more thing she failed at. Chelsea stopped and looked around. She then breathed out a heavy sigh and began to cry as she felt her head tingle some more.

Fortunately, it was then that she heard humming from the fly sitting behind her ear. It was "the Song of Storms." It was his effort to help her calm down. Chelsea listened to his humming, shut her eyes, and allowed the music to fill her soul. She was able to use that as a reason to forget what was going on in her brain. Chelsea always loved listening to this song when she was upset. It usually brought a smile to her face. She shut her eyes and breathed deeply. The elevator then started moving again. Jeffrey saw that what he was doing was helping her to calm down, so he continued to hum the never ending melody. Chelsea dissolved both discs and slumped down to the floor. Jeffrey stopped his humming, shapeshifted into a dragonfly, and landed on top of her knee.

"It's alright, Chelsea," Jeffrey said trying to be as comforting as he could. "You are not going to die."

"I know, Jeff," Chelsea said sighing. "I just feel like such a failure. I have messed up so much."

"What do you mean?" Jeffrey asked. "You have done great on the tests so far."

"That's not what I mean," Chelsea said calmly. "I mean that I just keep messing up so much with her. She keeps getting into my head and influencing me to do stupid things. I'm so tired of just trying and losing constantly. Even worse, I don't know what God expects me to do for her."

"What are you talking about?"

"I feel like God has put me in this situation because I am somehow in some way supposed to bring him into this horrible place. Now, I am realizing how impossible that actually is. I can't make a difference in this hell. I can barely keep myself going. I just can't do it."

"Chelsea," Jeffrey said kindly. "You are not supposed to bring God into this place."

"What?" Chelsea asked as she looked straight at him.

"We talked about that idea with my priest at a parish lunch," Jeffrey explained. "Anyways according to him, the idea that you are supposed to bring God here is wrong. You can't make that difference because God is already here. You just need to find him here and what he is doing will be revealed. That's all. It's not up to you to save her. He will do what he wants with her. It's wrong to place that kind of burden on yourself. We have to do what God wants us to, sure, but it's not up to us to make things happen. We have to trust him to do that."

"But are we not supposed to save people, Jeff?" Chelsea asked.

"We are supposed to serve God but the results are up to him," he said. "It's not up to us to make results happen."

Those words brought peace to Chelsea's mind. She realized that the whole day she had been carrying the wrong perspective. She had felt that it was on her to save GLaDOS. She felt like it was her duty, and because of that, she was frustrated and angry. Chelsea was trying to make results happen when really it was not up to her to save anyone's soul. That was God's job. She could not do it for him. All she had to do was trust him and do what he wanted her to do. It was a big revelation to her, and it felt as if pressure was lifted from her soul.

"That makes sense," Chelsea said resting her head against the back of the elevator. "I guess that it really isn't up to me to save her. I can't explain it but somehow I feel much better. It's like she's not my problem anymore. I guess I really don't have to worry about getting results with her. I just need to let God make it happen. I just need to trust him. I'm sorry, God, for not doing that. I really am. I need to let him be my peace. Thank you, Jeff!"

"I'm glad to help," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea looked down through the glass walls of the elevator and began to mentally prepare herself for the challenges that she knew lay ahead. She felt peaceful inside once again and was ready to face the tests and GLaDOS again. She no longer felt the tingling in her head and felt strong enough to stand once more. She got up, Jeff shapeshifted into a fly, and flew behind her ear once again. Chelsea was slightly nervous, but she was confident. God was with her, and she was right with him once again. That made her happy.

The elevator finally reached its destination and the doors opened. Chelsea walked out confidently to take her third test.


	25. Chapter 25

The elevator doors shut behind Chelsea as she continued to walk forward into the third test.

"I think I have figured out something about you, sparrow," GLaDOS said.

"Really?" Chelsea replied sarcastically. "What might that be?"

"I have realized that this entire time you have been going through stages of grief over what you inaccurately perceive to be a bad situation," GLaDOS said. "You at first were in shock over what was happening to you. You were in a sort of state of denial so to speak, then after spending some time in the anger phase, you began to bargain with me. After that, you started showing signs of being depressed. It was wonderful. I was sure that you would be in the acceptance phase by the time you had finished the tests, and we could put all this fighting behind us. But now, you seem to have regressed back into the anger phase. It's really very sad. We were making so much progress, and you were moving on towards acceptance at such a steady pace. It is a shame that we have to go through these phases again. Going through them one time is hard enough. You must be quite the masochist to want to endure them again."

Chelsea said nothing, rolled her eyes, and walked up the stairs.

"It doesn't matter though," GLaDOS said. "We have the rest of your life to complete this process, and thankfully while your compliance is desired, it is not necessary now that I have found a good way to stop you."

"You are an idiot if you think that relying on that one method of restriction is going to stop me forever."

"I don't know," GLaDOS said coldly. "You do not seem to be able to break through the hard light bridges. They seem very effective. It is actually quite funny if you think about it. The only thing that you can use to fight me is a weapon that I can use to restrain you. Your only weapon can be turned against you. It is very pathetic. Even your mother never had that problem. I guess that you are just not as resourceful as she was after all. You have nothing left to fight with."

"You're wrong about that, canary. I have more with me than you can ever imagine. The one with me is bigger than the one who is in this world and you," Chelsea replied as bravely as she could.

Chelsea had walked up the stairs and was entering the room. Meanwhile, GLaDOS had another revelation about Chelsea. She realized that Chelsea could not be stopped because of her firm conviction in her religious beliefs, so if she was going to gain any further traction with her, those beliefs would have to be picked apart so that she doubted them completely. If she could be made to not believe in them anymore, Chelsea would move on to the depression phase more quickly like GLaDOS needed her to. GLaDOS quickly devised a plan for how she would do just that.

Chelsea entered the room and saw a funnel emptying into a glass box with a grating bottom. The glass closed around the funnel so that entering the box was impossible. The rest of the room was covered in white moon rock walls. In the right corner of the room was a button while in the front left corner of the room was a pipe leaking the blue bouncing gel and in the back behind it was a pipe leaking water into a grating on the floor. It was obvious what needed to be done, but there was one problem. Chelsea could see that the cube was still in the funnel. She flew to the top of the box in order to get a closer look. As she hovered around the pipe, it just seemed to her that the funnel was not turned on. GLaDOS needed to turn it on so that the test could begin. If she didn't soon, Chelsea would just have to spend her time cutting her way out of the testing chambers. She landed on top of the box and walked towards the funnel. Chelsea wondered if she should simply cut the dumb thing open. She stopped right next to it and thought about what to do.

"My apologies," GLaDOS said suddenly. "It seems that the funnel is malfunctioning. I shall fix it for you."

"That's not necessary," Chelsea replied creating a disc in her left hand. "I can just break it open."

"You don't need to do that," GLaDOS said in annoyance. "I would prefer to be able to reuse at least some of my equipment after you finish testing. I only have a limited supply you know."

"What do you suggest we do then?" Chelsea asked as she dissolved the disc and crossed her arms.

"I suggest that you wait there until I fix the funnel if your limited attention span will allow you to," GLaDOS said. "That shouldn't be a problem. Should it? I think the dosage on your medicine is high enough to allow you to sit still for five minutes unless you need me to give you more."

"That won't be necessary," Chelsea said as she rubbed her right hand onto her tingling head.

Chelsea rubbed her head until the tingling subsided. Then she walked to the end of the box and sat down so that her feet were hanging over the edge. In boredom, she fired an orange portal over on the ceiling and a blue portal directly beneath it. Chelsea then pushed herself over the edge of the box, landed on a disc that she created, and flew up to the orange portal. She immediately dissolved her disc and started falling downwards. Unfortunately, that was when GLaDOS moved the discs so that both portals vanished.

"No more of that," GLaDOS said as she did it. "I would rather not have to clean up your vomit. Your blood will be disgusting enough."

Chelsea rolled her eyes and flew herself back up to the box. She crossed her arms behind her head and thought about what to do next. She could mess around with the bouncing gel, but she was afraid of it getting on her. Her mother told her what Cave Johnson had said about the gel being dangerous if she were to get herself covered in it. Chelsea laid back and thought about what to do. Then it occurred to her that she could try to escape. She just had to figure out how.

"Seeing you lying there like that reminds me of something," GLaDOS said interrupting Chelsea's thoughts. "It reminds me of the first three and a half weeks of your stay here when you were just a helpless, little bird sleeping while we worked. It was interesting to see a human like that to be honest. You see whenever I worked with humans before they were only either running and fighting like your mother or unconscious in cryogenic chambers. Dealing with you was very different, because I actually had to expend a great deal of effort to keep you alive. It was a different experience for me. You were so helpless. With all the drugs that were keeping you under, it was impossible for you to do anything for yourself. I had to do everything. I felt like a mother taking care of a baby or a nurse taking care of a patient in a hospital. It was an interesting thing to reflect on the feebleness of humans as I cared for you."

Both of them were silent for a moment. When GLaDOS did not hear Chelsea respond, she decided to continue talking.

"Dealing with you awake has been a different experience for me as well," GLaDOS said. "I have never dealt with anyone who was well…How should I put this…as convicted as you. It's really quite amazing. You have stubbornly held on to everything you believe in circumstances when other people would question whether or not God exists. How do you do it?"

"I'm used to dealing with crappy circumstances," Chelsea said. "I live in a world dominated by aliens. Dealing with this place is not enough to make me stop believing. Besides, having crappy circumstances does not mean God doesn't exist."

"Then, what do you blame the circumstances of your life on?" GLaDOS asked.

"Human error," Chelsea said. "It was Black Mesa who opened the portal to the Combines in the first place."

"Black Mesa has been known for being stupid," GLaDOS said. "However, that is not the point. Here at Aperture, we have never claimed that there is no God. In fact, most of our employees admitted to belief in a supernatural deity of some sort…"

"Really?" Chelsea retorted sarcastically. "They could have fooled me."

"Anyways," GLaDOS said. "The point is that we have always worked towards proving as many facts as we could, and I seek to continue that legacy by questioning the unknown. That leads me to my question. Why do you believe what you do?"

"You sure have a lot of respect for people you murdered. But anyhow, don't you have something to fix?" Chelsea asked as she sat up starting to become very annoyed.

"I'm working on it, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "I just thought that we could talk while we waited. Now, why do you believe that there's a God?"

Chelsea decided to concede. She had to keep GLaDOS occupied anyway, and she might as well glorify God in the process.

She thought for a moment and then she said, "The world and the universe are crafted in such a way that would only make sense if there was a God."

"What do you mean?" GLaDOS asked. "How would the universe make less sense if there was no God?"

"The universe is so big and beautiful and possibly besides the Combines, we are the only creatures complex enough to enjoy it all," Chelsea said. "I don't think that was accidental. I think he made us with brains so that we would be able to wonder at all he has done. There is also the fact that the universe is not eternal. It began at some point, and he was responsible for it. The universe could not exist without him. Furthermore, there is also the fact that the earth and wherever the heck the Combines came from was a place in a perfect condition to support life. For a planet to achieve all those things perfectly out of pure chance is statistically impossible. Someone had to set it up so that that was possible. Those things wouldn't make as much sense if there was no God. Would they?"

"Fair enough," GLaDOS said. "But if there is a God, why doesn't he make himself known and stop all the other false religions?"

"He wants us to choose to love him," Chelsea said. "Love that is forced is not real love. He wants people to seek him out for themselves and know him personally. Besides that, good actions have meaning when people choose to do them. That is the purpose behind free will but giving people free will also means giving them the ability to choose wrong. Also, the fact that we have religions at all proves that we have a desire to contact this God. Like C.S. Lewis said, if the desire exists, there must exist something to fulfill that desire. Right?"

"I suppose," GLaDOS said.

"Are we done?" Chelsea asked in annoyance.

"No," GLaDOS said. "I want to know more."

"No, you don't," Chelsea said sitting up. "I know that you couldn't care less, so why are you asking?"

"Perhaps, I do care," GLaDOS said. "Perhaps, I am a little bit curious. You are supposed to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that is in you. Aren't you?"

"Quoting the Bible doesn't suit you," Chelsea said standing up and staring at the camera.

"But I have a point. Do I not? You stand up for your faith so much. I just wanted to know why your hope is there to begin with. How do you know that you are not believing in nothing?" GLaDOS said.

Chelsea sighed deeply. She was very annoyed. She normally loved talking about her faith, but this time, she did not want to. GLaDOS was clearly looking for some kind of hole in her logic to torment her with. Chelsea knew that and did not want to give her anything to work off of. However, she also knew that it was her duty to witness to others, so she had to do something. Even if it was not up to her to save GLaDOS, Chelsea could at least tell her what she knew. Couldn't she?

"Do you ever doubt your God?" GLaDOS asked.

"Of course, I do," Chelsea said.

"I thought that you were a Christian," GLaDOS said coldly.

"I am, but that doesn't mean I don't doubt," Chelsea said. "I know as much as I do because I have doubted and have had to look up evidence for my beliefs. It's not a sin to have doubts you know. Habakkuk had doubts in the Bible, but God answered his questions and helped him believe again."

"Did he do that for you?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yes, time after time I have discovered the same thing," Chelsea said as she looked forward in reflection. "I have something inside me that will not let God go. There is a hole inside me that he fills. Everyone has a longing for something supernatural inside them. That longing itself is a good amount of evidence in and of itself."

"Interesting," GLaDOS said trying to buy some time while she was thinking about what to say next.

Chelsea stood there for a moment in silence. Then GLaDOS came back in again.

"How do you know that you can trust your own experiences?" GLaDOS asked coldly. "How do you know that everything that you have experienced is not just a delusion created by your own mind?"

"I'm not insane," Chelsea said calmly as she crossed her arms. "I have no reason to doubt what I've experienced any more than you would have any reason to doubt any of your internal experiences."

"But if your God is so real, why doesn't he make himself known to everybody in a big and physical way so that no one could ever have any doubts?" GLaDOS asked.

"He did reveal himself," Chelsea said. "The people he talked to discussed their experiences in the Bible. He also sent Jesus, who is God as well you know. Now, he is invisible because he wants to attract the people who really love him. Forced love is not love at all. You should learn that."

GLaDOS had to research the through her database for other things to ask Chelsea about so she finally decided to "fix" the broken machine.

"Oh, look," GLaDOS said. "It is finally fixed. You may go on with the testing now."

Chelsea rolled her eyes and watched as the funnel finally dropped the cube into the box. She ran, jumped off the box, and created a disc under her to land on. Chelsea landed and flew the disc under the box, placed an orange portal, then flew to the blue bouncing gel, and placed a blue portal under the dripping pipe. The gel went upwards into the box and covered the cube. The gel-covered cube bounced around and broke the glass cage it was in. The cube bounced out of the box, and Chelsea caught it with her portal gun. She flew over toward the water faucet, cleaned off the cube, and placed the cube onto the button causing the door to open.

"You see, GLaDOS," Chelsea said. "That was all that had to be done. Why did you have to drag out the process?"

"I'm not sure I know what you mean," GLaDOS said pretending to have no idea of what she was talking about.

"Sure," Chelsea said sarcastically.

Chelsea walked through the emancipation grid and into the elevator. The elevator started moving downwards once again.

"What is she getting at anyway?" Chelsea asked Jeffrey. "Why is she asking me all these questions?"

"Maybe, she's really curious," Jeffrey said.

"I can't afford to be that naïve, Jeff," Chelsea said cautiously. "She has to be up to something. She said that she was going to use these tests to tame me, so I take it that she is using this to manipulate me somehow. I can't believe she is sinking this low. Then again with her record, I can't say it's surprising."

"You did pretty well out there though," Jeffrey said. "I thought you answered pretty well."

Suddenly, the elevator stopped. Chelsea looked around. They were at the next testing chamber already. The ride was unusually short. Something about it did not feel right to her.

"That ride was too short," Chelsea said. "What is going on?"

Before Jeffrey could respond, the doors opened. GLaDOS curiously said nothing.

"Jeffrey," Chelsea whispered to him. "Talk to my parents and pray for me. Okay?"

"Will do," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea walked forward and walked up the stairs. GLaDOS said nothing. She did not give out one sarcastic comment. The sign on the wall signaled that she was beginning the fourth test, so she entered the room. Chelsea was stupefied. There was nothing in the room except white panels, a red button on the floor, and a cube. Chelsea looked up at the camera above the door.

"You are really insulting my intelligence now," Chelsea said. "What is this?"

GLaDOS again said nothing. Something really wasn't right. Chelsea used her portal gun to lift the cube and placed it on the button. The light came on, but the door did not open. Chelsea walked up to it to see if it was motion activated but it did nothing. It was then that she heard GLaDOS's gentle laughter.

"Not as easy as you thought," GLaDOS said. "Is it?"

"What are you playing at?" Chelsea asked. "What are you doing?"

"I thought that I would give you a seemingly simpler test so that you and I could talk more easily," GLaDOS said. "I will solve this test for you if you tell me all that I want to know or you can try to solve it and leave the conversation for good if you succeed."

"You would solve the test for me?" Chelsea asked suspiciously. "You can't do that. Can you? Won't you get hurt or something?"

"No," GLaDOS said. "That only happens if I _tell_ you how to solve the test. That is something I would never do. However as I told you before, I can do whatever I want here, so I can just let you out if I want to."

"Why are you doing this?" Chelsea asked even more suspiciously. "What is it that you want to know?"

"I want to know about why you believe what you do," GLaDOS said. "I want to know if what you believe is true. I want to know if you really understand it and are really confident about it."

"Why?" Chelsea asked. "I don't understand. Why do you care so much about it?"

"I care because you care," GLaDOS said. "Think about it. Everything you believe is the foundation on which you build your entire life. It is the reason behind all you do. I want to be sure that you understand it completely. If not, I'm afraid that one day you may wake up and find that all your hope has been placed in a lie. I know that you wouldn't want to deal with that."

"It is not…" Chelsea said but she looked away and stopped herself because she realized that she needed to control her emotions. GLaDOS was trying to make her go insane and fall into despair. She was trying to break her, and Chelsea could not let that happen. She quickly asked God for strength.

"Is something the matter?" GLaDOS asked. "You look frightened."

"No," Chelsea said looking back toward the camera in determination. "Everything's fine. What do you want to know?"

"The Bible is accurate," GLaDOS said. "What the ancient scribes copied down is the book that you read now. It is accurate in that sense, but is it true in any other sense?"

Chelsea looked up and said, "Yes, of course, but what do you mean?"

"Are the words really something that you can base your life on? You yourself seem to have trouble believing it."

"No, I haven't."

"Yes, you have. Your many nervous breakdowns are a testament to that. If your God was so good, wouldn't you never feel scared? He still allows bad things to happen to you. Since that is true, can you still trust him or anything in your faith? How do you know that it's not all meaningless?"

"I have faith. I can sense the supernatural. Everyone can if they use their spirit."

"Really?" GLaDOS said very skeptically. "Is the Bible really true then? If it wasn't would your supernatural sense still exist?"

"No one would have any connection to God without the Bible," Chelsea said.

Chelsea started staring at the door and thinking of a way out. She knew that she would make a mistake eventually and did not want GLaDOS to take advantage of her when she did.

"How do you know that the Bible is true in its entirety?" GLaDOS asked. "How do you know that none of it is a lie?"

"It's historically accurate," Chelsea said. "Isn't it?"

"Yes," GLaDOS said. "For the most part, that has proven to be true archeologically, but do you really believe that God intervened in the lives of man to create Israel? How do you know that it's not just propaganda?"

"If it was propaganda, why would they talk about how they had failed?" Chelsea asked as she walked towards the wall. "The Jews chased after other gods and were repeatedly ravaged by other nations as punishment for their disloyalty. Propaganda is used to glorify a nation, not show their gross failures. Besides, it was written by a plethora of authors over thousands of years. They could not have all had that reason for writing it."

Chelsea put her hands on the door. It still didn't move. She was not sure of what to do so she allowed her portal device to drop to the floor, created two discs in her hands, and started trying to cut wedge the door open with them.

"Why do you think it was written then?" GLaDOS asked as she pulled a screen of hard light in front of the door.

Chelsea frowned, looked at the camera above the door, and said, "It was written to document God's relationship with mankind and his plan to redeem them."

Chelsea was determined. She kept trying to wedge open the door with her discs and find a way out. When that did not work, she created an additional disc under her and flew it as far back as she could go in the room. She was going to ram it open.

"Does that mean you believe all of the Bible then?" GLaDOS asked. "Including the part about creation?"

"Yes," Chelsea said.

Chelsea then flew towards the hard light screen as fast as she could. She held her two discs in front of her. They were spinning as fast as they could. Chelsea flew more and more quickly until she reached the door. The hard light discs stopped on the door and went no further. Chelsea could not cut hard light with hard light. She would have to think of something else. Chelsea dissolved all the shields and sat down on the ground next to her portal gun.

"You believe that in spite of the theory of evolution," GLaDOS said.

"The two don't have to necessarily be mutually exclusive," Chelsea said as she continued to think. "God could made the world through evolution. I don't think that's how it happened, but I think he could have used it. My parents and several other people in the church think so. The theory is just too far-fetched if you ask me though. I just don't see how all of life could have evolved from one organism. It just doesn't make sense. Not to mention the fact that it violates what God said about creation in the beginning philosophically. It was peaceful and everyone lived in harmony. No one died or had to adapt to survive. That is why I don't agree with it. Anyways microevolution makes sense, but macroevolution is just plain weird."

"How do you think the world came to be then?" GLaDOS asked.

"I believe in the creation story as told in the beginning of the Bible," Chelsea said calmly as she continued to think. "I think that the earth is younger than we think it is and was just made to look older. I also think that dinosaurs and humans lived at about the same time. I mean, where do you think all those legends of dragons came from? Every nation in the world has them, so they must have come from somewhere. However, I guess we won't know for sure until we actually die and can ask God. That is, until Christians die and can ask God, I'm not sure where you think you'll be spending eternity."

"Speaking of Christians," GLaDOS said. "Do you believe everything that the disciples wrote about Jesus was true? Jesus was a historical person, but can you prove that he was the Son of God?"

"His body disappeared and the disciples were so convinced that he came back to life that they traveled across the world to tell everyone they could," Chelsea said. "Most of them never came back alive. Now tell me, who would die for something they knew was a lie?"

"I suppose nobody would," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea sighed and said, "How long is this going to go on?"

"How long is what going to go on?" GLaDOS asked.

"Your questions," Chelsea said in frustration. "I'm sick of answering them."

"Well, I'm not sick of asking them," GLaDOS said. "So unless you find a way to leave, I'm going ask until I'm satisfied."

"When will you ever be satisfied?"

"Is that an honest question or are you being philosophical?"

"You're impossible."

Chelsea walked towards the portal gun on the ground and sat down next to it. Her head started tingling again. She held her right hand on the ground and started rubbing her neck with her left hand in an effort to make it stop. The sensation frightened her. Chelsea breathed deeply in an effort to calm down.

"God," she prayed in her mind. "Make it stop."

Chelsea laid on her back and massaged her scalp with her hands.

"Well," GLaDOS said. "Since you aren't solving the test, I might as well ask you another question."

Chelsea rolled her eyes in response.

"How do you feel about all the killing that went on in the Bible, especially all the killing that the Israelites did when they moved into Israel after leaving Egypt?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea rolled over on her right said so that she was facing away from the camera. She waited for the tingling the stop.

"Do you not know the answer or are you just trying to ignore me?" GLaDOS asked.

"Quit being such a troll," Chelsea said.

"Are you not going to answer?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea breathed in and out again and sat up. She knew that she was not going to avoid her questions. If she tried to, GLaDOS would assume that was a victory in her favor. Chelsea could not allow that to happen. As the tingling subsided, she thought for a moment before coming up with a response.

"Well?" GLaDOS asked impatiently.

"Do you believe that some evils are necessary in order to prevent a greater evil?" Chelsea said.

"What do you mean?" GLaDOS asked.

"I think that God told the Israelites to kill the people they did because they would have killed them if they didn't," Chelsea said. "It was a sad thing to have to do, but it was necessary for the future of Israel."

"I have never heard anyone explain it like that," GLaDOS said. "It's interesting. I too believe in the idea of necessary evils."

"The evils that this place committed were not necessary," Chelsea said quickly. "They were wrong and unnecessary."

"That's hypocritical of you," GLaDOS said. "You believe that we were wrong in what we did but you believe that the Israelites were right in taking all the lives that they did?"

"God told the Israelites to act," Chelsea said. "These actions weren't meant to be followed in all circumstances by everybody. What Aperture did was wrong, and God never told them to act in the way that they did. Your blood is on your hands."

"Alright," GLaDOS said coldly. "How about this then? What do you think about homosexuality?"

Chelsea looked straight at the camera, stood up, and picked up the portal gun.

"What do you think I'm going to say to that?" Chelsea asked. "I believe in the Bible, and I am a Christian."

"Well," GLaDOS said as Chelsea looked forward contemplating what her next move was going to be.

"It's a sin," Chelsea said as she fired an orange portal on the ceiling and a blue portal on the ground.

She ran, jumped through the portals, and fell very quickly. After falling for about a minute, she fired an orange portal onto the wall behind her. As she fell through it, she created a disc on her feet and with the added momentum from falling, she flew quickly towards the door and created a spinning disc with her left hand. Chelsea was hoping that the increased speed would give her disc the momentum it needed to break through the hard light. However, that was not the case. As soon as Chelsea reached the door, her discs stopped just like before. She dissolved the discs and sat on the ground grimacing in frustration.

"What do you mean by saying that it's a sin?" GLaDOS said. "Aren't people entitled to love whoever they want?"

Chelsea sighed. Explaining this type of thing was never easy, especially not since the legalization of gay marriage. The ruling brought upon all types of scrutiny from the LGBT community and the culture in general towards Christians. The cultural persecution was intense. Christians were vilified extensively by the media and by most people in general for what they believed. People even attempted to push a law that would send church pastors to jail for refusing to marry homosexuals. That is what Chelsea had learned from reading history books and talking to people anyway. The church could not be forced to act against what their beliefs were thanks to the first amendment but that did not stop the culture from trying to change them. The culture forgot that tolerance meant allowing other people the right to disagree.

Having to explain the Christian stance on the issue was something that Chelsea was alright with doing. She had to do it every time someone new came in. However, it was a pain to be accused of being biased for not agreeing with someone else. Chelsea could not stand people who dismissed others for having different beliefs. It was so hypocritical. That was why she could not stand liberals or conservatives for that matter. They were such big hypocrites.

"No," Chelsea said to answer GLaDOS's question. "In the beginning, God meant for us to love and be a certain way in our romantic relationships. In the Bible, he considers any deviation from that standard including homosexuality an act of rebellion and thus a sin. As for why people have homosexual desires, in Romans 1, it says that God allowed people to be inflamed with desire for their own sex as a result of their rebellion, as a sort of curse."

"That's a harsh way of looking at it," GLaDOS said. "No wonder the church has always been seen as intolerant towards people."

"We're not intolerant," Chelsea said defensively. "We just don't like the sin, but that is no reason to hate the sinner."

"I'm curious," GLaDOS said. "Do you have any homosexuals in your congregation?"

"There is one guy," Chelsea said. "He used to be gay, but he isn't anymore."

"Did you pressure him out of it?"

"No, he chose it for himself. He originally came to us with his partner. We let them stay with us and eventually the guy decided to convert to Christianity. When he did, he realized that he would have to walk away from that lifestyle even if he still had feelings for other men. He told his partner, and that guy was so pissed that he left us. Now, the guy is married to a woman and is happy with his life. He says that he would rather not be with anyone else. People cannot choose what they deal with in this life, but they can choose how to respond to it and whether or not it defines them."

"I'm curious about something else as well. Was gay marriage legalized in your time?"

"Yes," Chelsea said as she got up, turned, and looked at the door once again.

"Was your church against it before it was legalized?" GLaDOS asked. "I'll bet it was. The church has always been against doing things differently. They were even against integration."

"Those people weren't really Christians then. There's nothing wrong with integration. God told us to love all types of people. Furthermore, I will tell you something interesting. Most people in my church are black."

"Really?"

"Yes, Roberts founded his church in an inner city neighborhood in Detroit so demographically there were mostly African-Americans."

This whole conversation was not going according to GLaDOS's plan so far, but she had other things that she could question Chelsea about. She was not worried. She had other ways to intimidate her. GLaDOS was silent for a moment as Chelsea stared at the door thinking about how to escape.

"Okay," GLaDOS began breaking Chelsea's concentration. "About your virginity…"

"Okay, no," Chelsea said turning away in sudden awkwardness. "We are not going to discuss that!"

"I know it must be an embarrassing thing for you to mention. It is for most humans."

"Of course not! I don't need to justify it to you! Christians stay virgins until marriage, and that's all there is to it."

"I was just going to say…"

Chelsea mentally wracked her brain for any topic they could talk about. She quickly came up with something.

"Music!" Chelsea exclaimed as she walked into the center of the room so that the camera could see her. "I said on the test that I needed music so where is my music?"

"You do not get music," GLaDOS said coldly. "I test people without it."

"Come on! Put on some music. It helps me concentrate."

"That is what the drugs are for. I could give you some more if you are having trouble."

Chelsea crossed her arms, looked at the camera, and said, "Fine! If that's the way you are going to be, then I'll make my own music."

"Oh my God," GLaDOS said unemotionally. "You cannot be serious. Are you going to sing?"

"I am," Chelsea said mischievously. "Why not? I have been told that I have a good singing voice."

"I know," GLaDOS said. "I heard it. Are you going to focus on the task at hand or do you have to be drugged some more?"

"Don't tell me not to live, Just sit and putter," Chelsea sang. "Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter. Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!"

Chelsea then jumped on a disc and flew into the center of the room.

She then continued to sing, "Don't tell me not to fly-I've simply got to. If someone takes a spill, it's me and not you. Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade!?"

She flew in circles and sang, "I'll march my band out, I'll beat my drum, and if I'm fanned out, your turn at bat, sir. At least I didn't fake it. Hat, sir, I guess I didn't make it!"

Chelsea flew right in front of the camera and continued singing as GLaDOS barely knew how to respond to her actions. They were just so bizarre.

"But whether I'm the rose of sheer perfection, or freckle on the nose of life's complexion, the cinder or the shiny apple of its eye," she sang.

Chelsea flew to the center of the room and dissolved the disc under her so that she fell to the floor as she began the line of lyric but caught herself on her newly created disc as she continued singing. She appeared to be throwing a musical number and she was. However, Chelsea was also thinking. Doing stuff like that helped her mind get going so that she could focus on the problem at hand and find a way to solve it.

"I gotta fly once, I gotta try once, Only can die once, right, sir?" Chelsea sang. "Ooh, life is juicy, juicy, and you see I gotta have my bite, sir!"

Chelsea landed on the ground and decided to examine the door and button on the floor again.

"Get ready for me, love, cause I'm a comer," Chelsea sang. "I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer. Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!"

Suddenly, the light bulb flashed on in Chelsea's mind as she finally figured out how she was supposed to solve the test.

Chelsea turned around and walked back toward the button while singing, "I'm gonna live and live now, get what I want-I know how, one roll for the whole she bang, one throw, that bell will go clang…"

Chelsea used the portal gun to pick up the cube.

"Eye on the target and wham," Chelsea sang as she created a disc under her and flew up towards the camera. "One shot, one gun shot, and BAM!"

When Chelsea sang the last word, she threw the cube towards the camera causing it to break. GLaDOS quickly changed to the other camera in the room. She turned on the camera to see that Chelsea had figured out the puzzle. The door was never locked in the first place, but by placing the cube on the button, Chelsea had locked the door. However by removing the cube from the button, the door became unlocked again. Chelsea had figured it out. The test was a reverse test that GLaDOS had never tried out before.

"Hey, Mister Arnstein, here I am!" Chelsea sang as she triumphantly marched out the door.

"I'll march my band out," Chelsea sang as she marched to the elevator even more slowly than before. "I'll beat my drum, and if I'm fanned out, your turn at bat, sir, at least I didn't fake it. Hat, sir, I guess I didn't make it."

Chelsea created a disc under her, flew up into the air, and sang, "Get ready for me, love, 'cause I'm a comer, I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer. Nobody, no, nobody is gonna rain on my parade!"

Chelsea stood there triumphantly with her hands in the air for a moment.

"Do you want applause?" GLaDOS said sarcastically.

"No," Chelsea said in satisfaction. "I was just basking in the moment."

"You are truly the oddest test subject that I have ever had," GLaDOS said. "I mean, what was the point of that?"

"A caged bird has a right to sing," Chelsea replied.

She then dissolved the disc under her, landed on the ground, and entered the elevator.

As the doors closed behind her and the elevator went down to the next test chamber, GLaDOS reflected on what she just saw and said, "Oh, God, what have I just unleashed?"


	26. Chapter 26

"Is my parent's group any closer to me than before?" Chelsea asked as the elevator continued going down. "What have you heard? Have you talked to them at all?"

"Yes, I have," Jeffrey said as he flew in front of her as a dragonfly. "Your parents are still a while off but Sylvie's group is getting closer to us. Apparently, they found a turret who knows where we are. That's what your Dad said anyway."

"How would a turret know where we are?" Chelsea asked incredulously.

"According to Sylvie, this turret has the ability to predict the future," Jeffrey said. "The other turrets call him the oracle turret."

"That's crazy!" Chelsea said in disbelief. "I mean we've been exposed to radiation or something, but how is a little turret able to predict the future?"

"It's true," Jeffrey said. "The turret has made a few prophecies already. He said some cryptic things and now he is leading them to us."

"Cryptic things?" Chelsea said as the words jogged her memory. "Oh, yeah! I remember Mom mentioning a turret like that. He said cryptic things that turned out to be prophecies that came true later. I guess that's him. Well, I'm glad they're coming after us. I hope they get here soon."

"I do, too," Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey landed on Chelsea's left shoulder as she leaned against the wall. They were silent as the elevator continued to go down.

"What did you think of my musical number?" Chelsea asked suddenly.

"I liked it," Jeffrey said. "It was a bit random, but it is nice to hear you sing. You seem to be a bit happier. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Chelsea said.

"Yes, my social observation skills are improving," Jeffrey said happily.

"I am always happier when I make music or do anything artsy really," Chelsea said in reflection. "I know that about myself. Singing makes me happy. It is for that reason I need to keep doing it, Jeffrey. It is something that God has given me to keep me happy in the midst of this hell."

"You did seem to think harder when you were singing," Jeffrey said. "So, I second your motion."

"Good," Chelsea said.

Suddenly, her head started to tingle once again. Chelsea rubbed her left hand against it.

"What's wrong?" Jeffrey asked. "Is your head tingling again?"

"Yes," Chelsea said fearfully. "I think it's getting worse."

"You don't have to be scared of it," said Jeffrey in an effort to help her calm down. "Your Dad says it's just a side effect of the high dosage of ADHD medicine. It won't hurt you."

"That's good to know, but I don't like the feeling," Chelsea said. "Did they say anything else?"

"Yes, your mom said that she's proud of you and that you are doing a great job," Jeffrey said. "Zaki said that Roscoe can reverse the effects of the medicine and make the tingling stop, but in the meantime, we have to keep distracting GLaDOS. We can do that, right?"

"I have no choice," said Chelsea. "Besides, I have an arsenal of songs that I can try out on her."

The elevator stopped, Jeffrey turned into a fly and hid behind Chelsea's ear, the doors opened, and she walked out of the elevator.

GLaDOS laughed gently as Chelsea walked towards the stairs.

"I was just imagining what you will look like in nine months," GLaDOS said coldly. "Your belly will be so round, your feet will be swollen, and you will be waddling around like a penguin."

Chelsea put her left hand on her stomach as a reaction. However, she quickly broke out of her stupor. Chelsea shook her head and walked up the stairs to her fifth test.

"I was also actually thinking about how I was going to do it," GLaDOS said in amusement. "You know how I was going to use artificial insemination? Well, I've been thinking. You deserve something a little more…special. What if I could give you what you have secretly always wanted? You see, according to his file, your partner has an attraction for young teenage girls, young teenage half-Asian girls in particular. He cannot control himself around them. In fact, he lost his job as a high school teacher and served some jail time because he seduced and tried to have non-consensual intercourse with a girl about your age. After being away from women for so long, I bet seeing you would make him happy to say the least. I thought that it would be fun for everyone involved if I locked you two in a room together and waited to see the results."

Chelsea stopped in her tracks at the top of the stairs and felt her cheeks blush in anger.

She turned towards the camera and said angrily, "If he tried to pull anything on me, I would cut off his dick. Then, I would find you and cut off your head."

"I'll just go with artificial insemination then," GLaDOS said in false disappointment. "I just thought I would do something nice for you."

"There's no point to it," Chelsea said quickly. "It's not happening."

"What are you talking about?" GLaDOS asked. "You were bleeding just last week. Your body is perfectly capable of reproducing."

"That's not what I meant," Chelsea said.

Chelsea entered the room and glanced at the sign on the wall saying that she was about to take her fifth test. She then looked forward and continued walking. The walls were white and on the floor was a laser going into the wall on her left. Then just behind it was a glass wall that had to be brought down.

The tingling kicked in before Chelsea could think anymore. The tingling may have been harmless to her, but she could not stand the sensation. Chelsea decided that she should start singing once again in order to get her mind off of it. She remembered a song from a show called "Animaniacs," a show from the 1990's that her mother enjoyed from childhood and shared with her. It was completely random, but she felt that it could get her mind off the tingling at least for a little while.

"United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru," Chelsea sang as she looked over the laser and continued looking around the wall. "Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean, Greenland, El Salvador too."

She noticed a slanted panel on the black wall in front of the glass panel.

She flew up to it and sang, "Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guyana, and still, Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina and Ecuador, Chile, Brazil."

Chelsea looked to where the slanted panel would be going and realized there was a slit in the wall.

She flew towards it to look through it and sang, "Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda, Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan."

Chelsea looked through the slit and noticed a large emancipation grid just outside the wall. She also noticed a generator turbine on the ceiling just past that. Chelsea smiled as she figured out what to do.

"Paraguay, Uruguay, Surinam and French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam," Chelsea sang as she backed away from the wall.

"Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Finland and Germany now in one piece," Chelsea sang as she dissolved the disc under her and fell to the ground.

"Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Turkey, and Greece," she sang as she created an orange portal on the wall that the laser was hitting.

Chelsea flew up towards the slanted panel to place the portal on the slanted panel and sang, "Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania, Ireland, Russia, Oman, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran."

Unfortunately for her after she fired the blue portal onto the panel, the laser went through the portal and skimmed her left shoulder. Chelsea winced at the pain and quickly flew downwards in order to examine her wound. She put down her portal gun on her disc and looked at her left shoulder. The laser burned through her left shirt sleeve so that it fell off. Only the top of her left shoulder was burned and the wound only hurt slightly, but her Aperture logo burn was now completely visible and not hidden by anything. She looked up at the camera mounted on the wall and noticed that it was staring right at her. GLaDOS was no doubt paying attention to what just happened and waiting to see her reaction. In full view of the camera, she rolled up the sleeve on her right shoulder so that GLaDOS could see her tattoo. She then stared at the camera and kissed her tattoo. It was her way of telling GLaDOS that God was still with her, and she was not afraid.

Chelsea then turned, picked up the portal gun, and flew back to where the blue portal was being careful to fly out of the way of the laser. She looked through the clear wall and noticed that the laser was not quite where it needed to be. It was hitting slightly to the left of the turbine. Chelsea had to move it.

"There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, both Yemens, Kuwait, and Bahrain," Chelsea sang as she flew against the wall and fired the blue portal so that the laser would be slightly more to the right.

The laser hit the turbine activating the mechanism to move the wall. Chelsea watched as the bottom part of the wall moved up half way giving her room to walk under the wall into the next room.

"The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal, France, England, Denmark, and Spain," Chelsea sang as she flew down to the floor and into the next room.

She flew through the emancipation grid dissolving the two portals and shutting the wall behind her.

"India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan, Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan," Chelsea sang as she looked around.

Chelsea saw a red button on the center of the floor whose purpose was unknown. She looked at the four corners of the room and saw turrets standing on tall platforms behind glass walls on two sides. Chelsea then looked in front of her and saw the door with a button in front of it. She quickly realized what she had to do but she wanted to use her short cut.

"Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh (Asia) and China, Korea, Japan," Chelsea sang as she flew over the button, dissolved the disc under her, and then landed on it.

The button opened the door, but as the door opened, a screen of hard light immediately appeared. Chelsea shrugged.

"I worked very hard to put these tests together for you," GLaDOS said firmly. "I am not going to let you cheat your way out of solving them. Solve them my way or never leave this room."

Chelsea took a deep breath. These puzzles were mentally draining, and she was not even halfway through them. She was tired of doing these tests already. It was a wonder that her mother got through them. However, she refused to give up. She had to keep going no matter what happened. She would not let that AI Bitch win. Chelsea prayed for strength and got her mind back to focusing on the task at hand.

"Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia, the Philippine Islands, Taiwan," Chelsea sang as a way to get her mind back on track.

"Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand, then Borneo, and Vietnam," Chelsea sang as she stepped off the button and walked toward the other button in the room.

"Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana," Chelsea sang as she walked on top of the other button.

As soon as she did, the walls for all the turrets came down at once. They all began firing as Chelsea pulled up a shield to protect herself from their bullets. She quickly ran off the button and walls came back up over the turrets. Chelsea dissolved her shield and breathed hard. That event scared her. The turrets came close to killing her. She would have to be more careful if she and Jeffrey were to survive.

"Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia, Guinea, Algeria, Ghana," Chelsea sang as she calmed herself down and figured out what to do next.

Chelsea finally got an idea in her head.

"Burundi, Lesotho, and Malawi, Togo, the Spanish Sahara is gone," Chelsea sang as she created a disc under herself and flew upwards.

She flew towards the first pillar on her left.

"Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Liberia, Egypt, Benin, and Gabon," Chelsea sang as she looked into the box with the turret.

She saw nothing so she flew over to the next box.

"Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, and Mali, Sierra Leone, and Algiers," she sang as looked into the next box and again saw nothing.

"Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya, Cameroon, Congo, Zaire," Chelsea sang as she flew to the third box and looked into it.

"Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Rwanda, Mahore, and Cayman," she sang as she looked into the fourth box and finally saw the cube behind the turret.

Chelsea flew to the ground, stepped on the button bringing down the glass wall, created a shield around her, shot an orange portal through above the turret that was behind the cube, then stepped off the button, and fired a blue portal onto the wall. She was glad that her mother had told her that portals could be shot through the hard light bridges.

"Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia..." she sang as she walked to the button, reached into the portal picking up the cube with the portal gun, and turned to walk back.

Then as she triumphantly strutted towards the cube, Chelsea finished the song, "Crete, Mauritania then Transylviania, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta, and Palestine, Fiji, Australia, Sudan."

As she sang the last word, she placed the cube on the button opening the door.

"Great job, Chelsea," Jeffrey whispered bringing a large smile across Chelsea's face.

Then, GLaDOS chimed in.

"Did you just name all of the nations of the world…in song…in a way that rhymes?" GLaDOS asked in amazement.

"No," Chelsea said as she walked towards the door. "I just named all the nations of the world as of the year 1993. The world is not organized like that anymore. There are new nations formed from nations who split apart from each other and nations who dissolved and changed their names and whatnot. At least, there were. With the Combines and everything, who knows how the world will look when all's said and done."

Chelsea walked through the door and the emancipation grid behind her towards the elevator.

"That's not quite what I meant," GLaDOS said. "What I meant was did you make up that song on your own?"

"Nope," Chelsea said stopping in her tracks and looking towards the ceiling. "It's from an old show that my Mom used to watch as a kid. It's called 'Animaniacs.' I doubt you've heard of it, but it's a terrific show. It's a shame that you will never get to see it. Anyways even if the song wasn't completely accurate by the time I came around, it still helped me memorize geography."

"I'm glad you dedicated your time to such useful pursuits," GLaDOS said sarcastically.

"I am, too," Chelsea said completely ignoring her sarcasm. "Because of that effort, I now have an arsenal of songs to sing."

"I suppose asking you to stop would be pointless," GLaDOS said.

"I will only stop if you play me some music," Chelsea said.

"I have already said no," GLaDOS said firmly.

"Then, I won't stop either," Chelsea said stubbornly.

Chelsea walked into the elevator, and the elevator began its descent. As GLaDOS watched her go down, she had to admit that she was impressed by her subject's memory as well as her intelligence. It was not easy to memorize the names of all the nations of the world after all. Furthermore, GLaDOS acknowledged that the subject had a decent tolerance for pain. She was burned, but she was still able to focus on what she needed to do and accomplish what she had to. They would have to see if she would be able to keep it up.

"That burn looks nasty," Jeffrey said as he sat on her left shoulder as an ice pack.

"Yeah," Chelsea said sitting on the ground. "It hurts a little bit, but I'll be alright. I can just ask Roscoe to heal it when we see each other again. I'm almost surprised that GLaDOS didn't say anything about it."

"Do you want me to stay here?" Jeffrey asked. "As we go through the tests, I mean. You could just put on your jacket to cover me up so that she wouldn't see me."

"I could do that," Chelsea said thoughtfully. "But she would still be suspicious."

"Why?" Jeffrey asked.

"I just a made a point out of showing her I wasn't afraid and rolled up my other sleeve as a symbol of my faith," Chelsea said as she took her right hand out of the portal gun and placed it on Jeffrey. "If I were to suddenly cover it up with a jacket, she would figure that something was up."

"Okay then, what should we do?"

"You will just have to ice my shoulder when I'm on the elevator."

"That will be quite a bit of time in between icing. Are you sure you can handle the burn?"

"Yes, I think so. If I can't, I'll just have to test faster. Won't I?"

The elevator stopped, and Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a fly so that he could hide on the back of her neck once more. The doors opened, and Chelsea walked out.

"I realized something ironic," GLaDOS said coldly. "You are going to be just like your grandmother…"

"I will never be like either of them," Chelsea carelessly said before she completely realized what GLaDOS meant.

"What woman are you referring to?" GLaDOS asked curiously. "I was talking about your mother's mother. I meant that you would be a teenage mother like your mother's mother most likely was. What was your other grandmother like?"

"Oh, merde," Chelsea said quietly to herself in admonishment as she created a disc and quickly flew to the door.

She felt so stupid for saying something that GLaDOS could potentially use to harm her father emotionally. How could she have been so careless?

Unfortunately, GLaDOS pulled a screen of hard light over the door before Chelsea could enter the sixth testing chamber.

"No, I'm curious now," GLaDOS said. "Tell me more about your other grandmother."

Chelsea felt horrible and was angry at herself for having ever said anything. Her father's parents were both abusive people who used their telepathic gifts for selfish gain and brutally punished her father and his older brother for not acting the way they wanted them to. His older brother, Sora, was kicked out for wanting to become a pastor and following his own path. He moved in with friends from a church and died in a car accident not long afterwards. His parents were very cold towards any mention of him since then. His brother's courage inspired Zaki himself to rebel. He endured the beatings that his parents gave him for refusing to follow their orders but eventually gathered enough evidence to arrest them for their crimes. They never stood trial because they both committed suicide. However, Zaki had won against his opponent just like Chell had against hers.

"If you must know, she was just like you," Chelsea said. "She was an abusive and controlling monster who punished him and his brother for not living their lives the way she wanted them to. My father had her and her husband arrested. She's dead now. She committed suicide along with his father. Now, they are both in hell for their crimes. You might get to meet them if you're lucky. Can I go now?"

"Interesting," GLaDOS said coldly. "It looks like your father and your mother have a lot in common."

"Yeah," Chelsea said proudly. "They are both brave."

"No," GLaDOS said. "They are both stubborn lunatics who refuse to listen to anyone and suffer the consequences for their actions. They are perfect for each other. I do not blame his parents for doing what they did. They were only doing what they thought was necessary."

"So abuse is necessary?" Chelsea asked angrily.

"Of course," GLaDOS said emotionlessly. "Abuse is the wrong way to put it, but certain conditioning is required for people to perform certain actions. Like trained dogs, positive and negative reinforcement has to be used so that they will act in a certain way. Your grandparents were just trying to do that for your father. He should have just accepted the conditioning and moved on."

"They wanted him to use his powers to take advantage of people and cheat!" Chelsea yelled. "They wanted to control my uncle instead of letting him become a pastor! They mistreated them just because they wanted to be honest or do something different with their lives! As a response, their parents beat them and hurt them so they both fought back. How did anything my father or his brother did warrant that kind of abuse? There's no excuse for treating your children so horribly."

"It is if you think it's best," GLaDOS said.

"Haven't you ever heard of the expression about allowing someone the freedom to make their own choices if you really love them?" Chelsea asked.

"No, I believe lunatics are not capable of making good decisions with their lives, so they need to be controlled," GLaDOS said harshly. "I mean just look at your parents. Neither of them came from a stable home and have no experience with normal families, but they decided to marry and raise a child anyway. That is the kind of decision that lunatics would make. Is it not?"

"Cut the crap and open the damn door already!" Chelsea said angrily.

"I speak the truth," GLaDOS said. "Your parents are insane, raving, destructive, completely unstable in every way, mad lunatics who are only running free because no one is around to stop them. Seeing the kind of people they are now, it is understandable why their biological parents treated them the way they did. They were just too difficult to deal with any other way. They're lunatics who are only capable of lunacy and if I wasn't intervening, you would be, too. It is just a shame that the messages of their families never sunk in. I suppose that they were both just too crazy to listen."

"I said shut up!" Chelsea screamed at her as she created a large spinning disc that was as wide as the corridor and fired it towards the elevator.

It flew straight through the elevator cutting it immediately in half. The bottom half of the elevator immediately fell through the floor along with the rest of the glass tube. The disc only stopped turning when it was caught in the wall on the other side of the elevator. GLaDOS stared on in a petrified silence.

"You see that?" Chelsea asked angrily after a moment of silence. "That is what I will do to you if you do not cut your crap about my parents. Now, shut up and let me through the door."

GLaDOS dissolved the hard light shield going over the door. The door opened, and Chelsea immediately flew into the hallway to take the sixth test. Meanwhile, GLaDOS stared on at the damage in horror. She was shocked at the amount of power that Chelsea used at one time. She had known that she could make the shields larger but she did not realize how sharp her discs could become. Breaking through wires or even the thinner glass of the relaxation chamber was one thing, but breaking through the thicker glass of the tube and the elevator in one shot was something else. What scared GLaDOS was that they had cut through the thick glass of the elevator with so little effort. It meant that Chelsea could do much more damage if she wanted to.

"Oh, my God," GLaDOS asked as she continued to stare at the wreckage.

GLaDOS realized that she needed to break Chelsea once and for all. If she didn't, Chelsea would only find a way to kill her. She could not mess around with her anymore. Chelsea was more powerful than she realized and had to be stopped, or it would only be a matter of time before GLaDOS was dead.

Meanwhile, Chelsea was in the hallway leading to the next testing chamber. She was sitting in the corner in a curled up ball. That last disc had taken a bit out of her. It required more energy to create larger discs and in her anger she had done more than she should have. Now, she was tired and needed to take a minute to rest.

Chelsea regretted what she had done. She had been doing so well. Chelsea had felt so joyful, but now, she had allowed that computer to upset her again. She did not feel bad about the damage but more for her lack of self-control and what she viewed as her increasing loss of sanity. When it happened, Chelsea felt for a second that she had lost herself and that an angry, bitter monster had taken over. More and more, she was feeling that she had to resort to becoming that monster in order to survive. Chelsea believed that God was going to keep her from going completely insane and protect her mind, but she was still frightened of what she knew she could become. More than that, Chelsea was also tired. She had failed once again and was on the verge of giving up.

"God, all I do is screw up. Would it be best for everyone if I just sit here and don't move?" Chelsea prayed in her mind.

"It's okay, Chelsea," Jeffrey quietly whispered in her right ear even though he only had a faint idea of what was going on in her mind. "God is still with you."

"I'm so tired of putting on this act, Jeff," Chelsea said quietly. "I can't do it anymore. I'm tired of pretending to be brave."

Before Jeffrey could respond, GLaDOS decided to talk again.

"Where did you go?" GLaDOS asked. "There is no footage on the cameras of you ever having entered the room and there have been no indications of a breach in the security of the testing chambers, so I know that you are in there somewhere. You can come on out you know. I am not angry. I do not want to hurt you. I just want you to test. Come on out please."

Chelsea rolled her eyes as she breathed in and out. Then she got up and walked through the rest of the hallway until she entered the sixth testing chamber. Chelsea dragged her left hand against the wall.

"There you are," GLaDOS said. "I was afraid that you had become lost in the short hallway between the two chambers."

Chelsea said nothing but looked around the testing chamber and saw something that she was not expecting. It was a room of three low-lying platforms surrounded by acidic pools. There was one platform in the center with a button on it and a door on the other side of the room with a tray for where a cube would be set. However what Chelsea found unexpected was that the ceiling had cracks in it and although there was hard light over the cracks sunlight was still coming through. As such there were plants growing on the walls, vines to be exact. There were growing so thick that the white of the walls was barely seen.

Chelsea had not seen green plants in just over a month. She had hardly seen anything resembling the outside world in the past month. All she had seen was the inside of the facility. It was horridly white and sterile gray. There was nothing natural or beautiful about it. It was cold and ugly and made the heart shrivel inside from lack of warmth. The leaves reminded Chelsea of the world outside the facility, the world that she missed seeing.

Chelsea walked quickly to the first platform. She was more overjoyed than she expected to be at the sight of the plants. Chelsea reached towards one of the leaves on the wall. She felt its texture with her fingers as she felt part of her heart come alive with their simple beauty. Chelsea loved nature. It always made her feel so happy to go outside and be in the sun surrounded by the beauty of God's creation. She loved being in it, photographing it, and enjoying it. Feeling the smooth texture of the leaf in her hand brought a tear to her eye as she remembered that world. Chelsea did not realize how much she missed seeing nature.

GLaDOS watched on in silence. It was almost too good to be true. Chelsea seemed to have advanced to the depression stage.

Suddenly, Chelsea started singing once again. She sang a Japanese song called, "Tomoni" or together in English written by an artist named KOKIA. Chelsea knew that GLaDOS most likely understood the lyrics, but at that moment, she didn't care if she was aware of her emotions or not. She just wanted to be sad.

"Ame furishikiru Itetsuita daichi Mune hikisakarete wa Kono misaki de (The rain falls ceaselessly on the frozen-over earth. My heart is torn to pieces on this cape)," Chelsea sang as she ran her left hand over all the leaves as she walked by on the platform. "Umi no tsuyosa Sora no hirosa Sukoshi wakete moratte ita (You shared with me a little of the strength of the sea and the wideness of the sky)."

She flew over the acid to the platform in the middle.

"Kumo no aima no Hitosuji no hikari Te wo nobashite wa Surinukete yuku (A single beam of light shines through the gap in the clouds. If I hold out my hands it comes streaming from them)," Chelsea sang as she flew. "Sora no koe wo kikinigasanai you ni Itsumademo mitsumete ita (I stared at the sky forever so that I would hear its voice when it came)."

She landed on the platform and walked towards the button in the center. Chelsea then stepped on it as she continued singing, "Daichi no koe wo kite Uneru nami sora ga okori ni michite iru (Listen to the voice of the earth. The swelling waves and the sky are full of anger)."

As Chelsea looked around the room, she noticed that the toxic water was starting to be drained out of the room. The water drained faster and faster until there was nothing left. Chelsea stared on in amazement for a second and then she stepped off the button. The water started pouring back into the room, so quickly, Chelsea stepped back onto the button. She wasn't sure of what to do. What she needed was on the floor where the water was obviously but she couldn't wade in the water to get it. Chelsea looked towards the wall as she reflected upon what she should do and continued to remember the outside.

"Kono chi ni umare Kono izu wo nonda Wasure wa shinai Tsuchi no nioi (We were born on this earth. We drank this water. I won't forget the smell of the soil)," Chelsea sang sadly. "Yama wa doko e Mori wa doko e Kiete ittan darou (Where have the mountains and the forest disappeared to?)"

She then turned her head and looked over the empty pool. Chelsea saw nothing that could be immediately of use.

"Nagare wa toki wo kakete Yagate hitotsu no michi ni naru (The flow takes time to eventually become one road)," she sang as she looked around in sadness. "Dosshiri daichi ni ne wo oroshite Tomo ni ikite kita monotachi wo Omoidashite Onaji kodou no rizumu (Remember the people who put down roots in this massive earth and lived together. Our hearts beat with the same rhythm)."

Chelsea wasn't sure about what to do and part of her was struggling to care about solving the test in the first place. She stepped off the button and flew over to the last platform where the door was. Chelsea could care less that the pool was filling up again. She was struggling to deal with her own hopeless state and struggling to find a reason to keep going.

She continued to sing as she flew, "Nanimo kamo ga ubawarete Shiro to kuro haiiro no sekai Hon no sukoshi no midori sae mo (Everything is taken away from us in this world of black, white and grey even just a little bit of green)."

She landed and continued with tears streaming down her face at this point, "Yurusareru koto naku Tachimachi iro wo ushinatte itta (The colours suddenly disappeared. Nothing was left behind)."

Chelsea sat down and leaned her head against the wall so that she could continue to stare at the green plants. She did not want to go on. She did not want to leave them behind and venture further into the horrible abyss that was the facility. Chelsea did not have the strength to. She did not even know how to solve the test. Was God really present? Was he really going to stop her from going insane? How was she to know that she wasn't alone?

It was then that she noticed the sound of music. Chelsea looked up across the room and saw a turret on another platform in an open nook on the left corner of the room. He was out of the way enough that she had not noticed him before. The turret was doing what her mother told her they could do. He was making music, specifically he was playing the basic melody of the song that Chelsea was just singing. She was really confused. Chelsea stood up, created a disc, and flew up to him so that she was standing right in front of him, but he did not stop. She smiled as she watched him. He was pretty much a slave but he found a reason to be joyful. The turret had his music.

Then suddenly, the platform under him tipped forward. The turret stopped making music and screamed in a panic, but as a reaction, Chelsea caught him with the portal gun and pulled him up in the air in front of her. The turret stared at her in fear wondering what she was going to do.

Chelsea was angry at GLaDOS once again. This little robot was only doing something to enjoy his life, something other than his directive and for that reason, she was going to kill him. GLaDOS did that to everyone. She destroyed anyone who did not act according to her will. She either destroyed them or broke down their wills to fight like Satan himself. This anger at the mistreatment of the turret gave Chelsea a new motivation to fight. GLaDOS could not win. She would not win as long as Chelsea did not give into her. Chelsea had messed up but all she could do was ask God to forgive her for her foolishness and move on. She had to trust God and keep fighting. He was stronger than GLaDOS, and he would win.

Chelsea wiped her eyes with her free left hand. The turret still stared at her, but Chelsea smiled in gentleness towards him. The turrets may have killed many, but really, they were just like child soldiers. Killing was what they were made to do and they could not do any different even if they wanted to or they would be killed themselves. They all must have been so frightened. They must have been more scared than she was. She at least was aware of a God who loved her. They had no clue. Realizing all this made her heart come alive with love and compassion.

Chelsea smiled at the turret in reassurance and sang, "Midori no iro wo oboete iru uchi ni Tomo ni kaerou tomo ni kaerou (While we still remember what the colour green looks like, let's bring it back together, let's bring it back together)."

The turret began playing along to the melody of her song once again. That made Chelsea happy. She felt herself feeling a desire to help these creatures. She wanted them to be free and know what life really was. She wanted them to see the color green. Chelsea closed her eyes as she asked God to forgive her and thanked him for the hope that he gave her through this little turret.

Chelsea set the turret down on the platform on top of the button. She had hoped that his weight would be enough to push the button down. It wasn't so she moved him over so that she could stand on top of the button.

She stepped on the button and with the turret playing in the background, she sang, "Shizen wa itta mada mou sukoshi matsu yo (Nature has told us, we'll wait a little longer)."

The water drained out, and Chelsea quickly jumped into the pool holding a shield around herself so that the water would not touch her. The water quickly came pouring back in as Chelsea looked around for what it was that she was supposed to find.

"Shizen wa itta mada mou sukoshi matsu yo," Chelsea sang to keep herself calm and focused.

As the water became feet deep on her shield, she found what she was supposed to find. There was a glass box in the floor with what looked like a cube inside it. There was a slit in the box and a panel at the bottom for her to fire a portal onto.

"Shizen wa itta mada mou sukoshi matsu yo," Chelsea sang as she flew up onto the platform and stepped on the button.

After the water drained out, Chelsea quickly flew over to the glass box, fired an orange portal into it, and then fired a blue portal onto the ceiling above her. She caught the cube and swerved out of the way to avoid the rushing water.

"Shizen wa itta mada mou sukoshi matsu yo," Chelsea sang as she dropped the cube into the plate causing the door to open.

Before she walked through the door, Chelsea turned back and flew to the turret who had stopped making his music but remained still staring at her in awe mixed with fear. She crouched down to his level and touched his head with her left hand. The turret closed his eye as if bracing for something bad.

"I think that I'll call you Terry," Chelsea said.

The turret opened his eye and stared at her in confusion.

"It's like Terra which is Latin for earth but it's more masculine," Chelsea said. "You are male, right?"

"Yes," the turret said nervously.

"Okay," Chelsea said. "Terry, it is, then."

A moment of silence passed between the two of them and then Chelsea talked again.

"Would you like to see the green world outside with me, little guy?" Chelsea said tenderly and quietly. "I know you would like to go, and you will. I cannot take you with me right now, but you are going to be set free. I can promise you that. However until then, keep playing the song you heard from me. Thank you for making music with me. You have given me so much hope. I'll see you later."

Chelsea stood up, created a disc under her, and flew out of the room. Terry looked on in wonder and continued to play the melody that he had heard Chelsea sing. Meanwhile, Chelsea had left the room, dissolved her disc, and walked slowly to the elevator.

"You sing very well in Japanese," GLaDOS said in an unexpected compliment.

"Thanks," Chelsea said. "I learned Japanese from my father and inherited the singing voice from my mother."

"Your mother can sing?" GLaDOS asked incredulously.

"Yes," Chelsea said. "She has a beautiful singing voice."

"Interesting," GLaDOS said coldly. "Anyways, I wanted to apologize for the plant life in the testing chamber. Judging from the lyrics of your song, I can tell that they made you rather sad. I will do my best to ensure that you do not have to encounter any plant life in the future."

Chelsea glared at the camera briefly to show her disapproval before she continued walking. It was almost unbelievable how cold that monster was.

"I also have to apologize for that turret," GLaDOS said more coldly than before.

Chelsea froze in her tracks in fear.

GLaDOS continued, "While it is true that the turrets are very musically inclined, they usually know to stop making music when it is time for work to be done. However, the one you encountered in there was clearly defective. It just did not know when it was time to focus, a lot like you in a way. However, I can tell that it made you upset, too. You will not have to worry about it though. Once the tests are over, I will make arrangements for the turret to be sent to Android Hell."

Chelsea did not know how to react. She knew that the android wanted to bring a reaction out of her. She also knew that getting upset then would probably incite GLaDOS to kill him faster. Chelsea simply walked forward into the elevator. Chelsea started talking again as soon as the doors shut.

"Jeffrey," Chelsea said in an almost panic as she walked around the elevator. "You have to tell my Dad about Terry. He might say that we can put it off until after we kill GLaDOS but I don't want to take that chance. He has to tell Sylvie to save Terry. She can hear him singing. She could do something!"

"Ok," Jeffrey said calmly as he shapeshifted into an ice pack to sit on her shoulder. "I'll do it."

In the time it took for him to transmit the information, they were still in the elevator. The elevator ride was taking longer than usual. Chelsea leaned against the glass and looked up as if looking after Terry.

"What did my Dad say?" Chelsea asked after a few minutes.

"He said what you thought he would, but Sylvie said she would listen out for him," Jeffrey said. "She can hear their thoughts after all, so if she was close enough to him, she would be able to find him."

"That's great," Chelsea said. "I want that turret to escape. I want us to make that happen for him and the others."

"We will," Jeffrey said. "Sylvie said she felt the same way. It will happen."

"Good!" Chelsea said.

After a moment of silence, Chelsea spoke again.

"You know something, Jeff," Chelsea said. "I've realized how right my Mom was."

"About what?" Jeffrey said.

"About these robots having souls. I knew that GLaDOS was special, but all of these robots in their own way have something special, something almost holy. They are alive, and they have the breath of life inside them. It's incredible. I can't really explain it very well, but they are alive and they have their own minds just like humans."

"I think I understand. These robots are definitely incredible."

"Yeah! They are, and since they are alive, they can be reached."

"What do you mean?"

"These robots have the ability to defy their programming. They have the ability to think for themselves but they are all slaves to this terrible place. I was just thinking. What would it take for all of them to rebel against their programming? What would it take to reach them? What would it take to reach her?"

"You mean GLaDOS?"

"Yes! It sounds absolutely nuts. I know, but I think that my singing touched the turret's heart somehow. Maybe I could sing something that would touch GLaDOS, too. I know that music has an effect on her. One time before I was put to sleep and was humming the song the turrets sang to my mom, she started freaking out because she remembered Caroline. If I sang something that reminded her of her time being human or something about her past, maybe something would happen. I don't know what but progress could be made."

"That does sound kind of weird, but it also sounds interesting. I guess we really have nothing to lose, so I guess that it's something you should try."

Jeffrey was very non-judgmental. That was one of the traits that Chelsea appreciated the most about him. No matter how weird an idea sounded he would never shoot it down without hearing the other person's thought process. He would be the sounding board for any weird idea no matter how strange it was. His encouragement was always greatly appreciated.

Chelsea smiled and looked down as she waited in anticipation for the next test.


	27. Chapter 27

"What type of music should I sing?" Chelsea asked. "We really need to keep it narrowed down to stuff that she would recognize."

"It would all be stuff in the twentieth century," Jeffrey said. "It would most likely be music between the 1920's and the early 1990's. Remember that and you should be good."

"That's a lot of music to cover," Chelsea said. "Society and music changed a lot during that time so fortunately for me, I have a good selection to choose from. It's a shame the National wasn't around then. I know a lot of their stuff. Oh, well! It's alright. I still know a good deal of music."

The elevator stopped as they finally reached their destination.

"Okay," Chelsea said. "Here's where being a musicphile finally pays off."

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a fly and flew behind Chelsea's neck once again. The elevator doors opened, and Chelsea stepped out.

"What took you so long?" Chelsea asked.

"The other test chambers had plants in them so I moved you to ones that didn't have plants," GLaDOS said. "I didn't want you to get upset again."

Chelsea rolled her eyes and walked up the stairs to enter the seventh testing chamber. When she entered the room, she instantly saw stairs going up to a narrow hallway.

"Hey, GLaDOS!" Chelsea said. "I was wondering what kind of songs you liked."

"The only music I like is the sound of subjects testing," GLaDOS said sarcastically.

"Come on," Chelsea said. "There has to be something that you like, maybe something that she liked?"

"I don't know what you mean," GLaDOS said coldly. "Now, keep testing and make the music that I like."

Chelsea quickly thought of a band as she walked up the stairs. She looked above at the wall behind her in the room that she was entering and noticed an energy pellet hitting the wall. It was like one of the tests that GLaDOS had first used on Chell when testing her except this time she did not give her a companion cube to defend herself with.

"Did your mother ever talk about the energy pellets?" GLaDOS asked.

"Of course, she did," Chelsea said defensively. "We still have the companion cube she used."

"Interesting," GLaDOS said. "Anyway, since that is the case, there is not much that I need to tell you that you would not already know. Just be sure to not be hit by the energy pellets."

Chelsea waited for the pellet to bounce back and then she formed a shield around her body. She walked up the stairs past the sign signaling that she was taking her seventh test and entered the hallway. As the pellet bounced back in her direction, it was blocked by the shield that she formed around herself and bounced back. Chelsea walked on and thought of bands from the twentieth century. As she left the hallway and walked down the stairs at the end into the testing chamber, Chelsea thought of one. She thought of a song by Nirvana, one of the only bands that her mother remembered hearing from before she came to Aperture. Chelsea looked at the room and saw a testing chamber with another dispenser that let out high energy pellets and a catcher that would absorb it and open the door into the next part of the testing chamber.

"Have you ever heard of Nirvana?" Chelsea asked.

"Of course, I have," GLaDOS replied. "It's the Hindu concept of paradise."

"Not that Nirvana," Chelsea said. "I meant the band Nirvana."

"I am not sure what you mean," GLaDOS said coldly.

Chelsea hummed the opening melody to Nirvana's song, "All Apologies." Instantly, GLaDOS felt a spark of recognition as if she had heard that melody before.

"What else should I be?" Chelsea sang as she walked into the center of the room with her shield still up. "All apologies! What else could I say? Everyone is gay."

Chelsea created a disc to fly on and flew so that she was in the center of the room on level with the energy pellet generator. She noticed that the camera in the room was not following her movements.

GLaDOS on her end was preoccupied with a flashback. She remembered Caroline. She was sitting in a car and was very upset about something. She was much older and much bitterer about life. She turned on the radio in her car in order to forget whatever it was that was upsetting her. This song came on, and she was touched by the lyrics. They struck a chord with her. From the date that this song came out, it had to be one of the last songs that Caroline ever heard if not the last.

Chelsea was unaware of any of this but she did notice that the camera was not working so as soon as flew into the center of the room she decided to continue.

"What else could I write?" Chelsea sang. "I don't have the right. What else should I be? All apologies!"

Chelsea then fired an orange portal quickly onto a wall that a pellet was about to hit and then fired a blue portal so that the pellet would fly directly towards the pellet catcher and open the door.

"In the sun, in the sun, I feel as one," Chelsea sang as she watched the pellet go through her portals and open the door. "In the sun, in the sun, I'm married! Buried!"

Chelsea then flew the door and planned on finishing her song before she entered the elevator, but to her disappointment, there was another energy pellet room. It was like the previous room except the pellet was hitting a ramp and ricocheting to the ceiling and back again.

"I wish I was like you, easily amused," Chelsea sang as she looked up to see that the camera was still not tracking her movements. "Find my nest of salt. Everything is my fault. I'll take all the blame, aqua sea foam shame. Sunburn with freezer burn! Choking on the ashes of her enemy!"

Chelsea shot an orange portal onto the ceiling before the pellet ricocheted back and then fired a blue portal positioned so that the pellet would hit the pellet catcher.

As she did that, she sang, "In the sun, in the sun, I feel as one! In the sun, in the sun, married! Married! Married! Buried! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"

As the door opened, Chelsea walked a curvy path to the door so that she could finish her song.

She sang, "All in all is all we are. All in all is all we are. All in all is all we are. All in all is all we are. All in all is all we are."

Chelsea walked through the emancipation grid and continued to sing, "All in all is all we are. All in all is all we are. All in all is all we are. All in all is all we are. All in all is all we are."

She continued singing the same sentence and stared at the camera that was hanging on the side of the wall. It was glowing red, but it still was not moving with her motions. Chelsea stood there for a second and just waited to see if she would do anything. Then Chelsea flew up to the camera that was hanging limp, held it in her hands, and stared right into it. She then finished singing.

GLaDOS finished re-living her memory and looked into the camera just to see her test subject's face.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked in annoyance.

"I might ask you the same thing," Chelsea replied.

"I am waiting for you to start testing," GLaDOS said.

"I completed the test already," Chelsea said. "I guess you weren't paying attention. Did you like my song at least?"

For the first time in a while, GLaDOS felt vulnerable and embarrassed. She had been so captivated by the flashback brought on by Chelsea's song that she had paid no attention whatsoever to what Chelsea did in the testing chambers. GLaDOS knew that she had to cover up this mistake somehow. She could not let Chelsea see any vulnerability in her. That would compromise her image which was never allowed with her position. GLaDOS quickly came up with a reason that would explain what had happened before Chelsea became suspicious.

"The cameras must have malfunctioned," GLaDOS lied calmly. "All I could hear was your song. I didn't see you in any of the testing chambers."

"Really?" Chelsea asked suspiciously.

"Yes," GLaDOS said firmly. "That is what happened. I guess I missed seeing you test. Oh, well! I'll get to watch you test in the next testing chamber. Get in the elevator and proceed please."

Chelsea smiled, flew to the floor, and entered the elevator.

As GLaDOS watched her go down, she felt unsettled. Memories that she did not want to experience were coming back, and she was struggling to think of a way to block them out. These memories were interfered with her work, and for the sake of her subject's compliance, she could not allow that to happen again. GLaDOS knew that if she did she would only become more vulnerable and that was something she could not allow, especially not with all the problems that were going on in her facility at the moment. She quickly calmed herself down and made herself focus on what was ahead.

Meanwhile in the elevator, Chelsea felt overjoyed. She couldn't believe that her first song actually had worked on GLaDOS.

"That was amazing," Chelsea said to Jeffrey who was icing her left shoulder once again. "I guess I really touched her heart there."

"I guess you did," Jeffrey replied.

"I wonder what I should sing next," Chelsea said looking out the window. "I just wish I knew what she liked. I was lucky that time, but there's no guarantee that I will get it right again."

"Don't worry about it," Jeffrey said. "We have no way of knowing what she liked but just keep singing and the odds are that you will find something she remembers."

The elevator stopped, and Jeffrey returned to his usual spot. The doors opened, and Chelsea walked out to take her eighth test. GLaDOS was surprisingly silent as she walked up the stairs and passed the sign advertising that she was going to take her eigth test. Chelsea was silent too as she tried to come up with the song that she would sing next.

As Chelsea was about to enter the room, GLaDOS finally spoke up.

"Sparrow, have you encountered any insects in the testing chambers?" GLaDOS asked.

"No," Chelsea replied in confusion. "Why do you ask?"

"There appears to be an insect bite of some sort on your left shoulder right in the middle of your brand," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea's heart almost stopped. She could feel Jeffrey shuffle about nervously on the back of her neck.

"I was almost completely certain that I had kept all insects out of the testing track," GLaDOS said. "I suppose that I am not doing a good enough job."

"I suppose not," Chelsea said trying not to show any fear. "I didn't even feel it bite me."

Then in an effort to change the subject, Chelsea said, "Hey, GLaDOS! Have you ever seen a musical?"

"I'm watching one right now," she replied sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant," Chelsea said as she walked into the room.

There were white panels on the wall to her left, a laser gate directly in front of her, and a white wall that continued front the gate in a room that appeared to be darker for some reason. There are appeared to be a floor on the other side though.

"What I meant was did she ever see any musicals?" Chelsea asked. "You know, like 'Little Shop of Horrors?' 'Annie?' Or 'Les Miserables?'"

"I thought the last one was only a book," GLaDOS said.

"It is, but someone made a musical of the story, too," Chelsea said. "It's not better than the book, but it's still really good."

"Fascinating," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "Are you going to test?"

"Of course," Chelsea said as she fired an orange portal onto the wall next to her and a blue portal on the other side of the laser gate.

"Are you sure that there is no musical that you recognize?" Chelsea asked suspiciously.

GLaDOS didn't respond, but Chelsea decided that she would sing a song from "Les Miserables" just to see if GLaDOS recognized it.

Chelsea sang, "Do you hear the people…AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

There was no floor on the other side of the chamber. It was just a hologram. Chelsea screamed as she fell through the hole and was falling to the pit where there was nothing but toxic pits to meet her. She created a disc at her feet and flew upwards breathing extremely hard.

"Oh, my God," Chelsea said as she looked down at the toxic pools. "That could have killed me."

Then she looked around and saw a room full of platforms many of which had turrets on them who were not yet activated. After that, Chelsea looked at the other side of the room and saw a button with a gate that would allow her to enter the elevator.

"You're getting less and less creative with your tests," Chelsea said to GLaDOS. "You know that? This test is exactly like the last one except for the fact that we're in a bigger room."

GLaDOS laughed very gently and said, "Look up."

Chelsea looked up, and her heart almost stopped. There must have been a hundred rocket turrets on the ceiling above her but not firing for some reason, most likely for dramatic effect on the part of GLaDOS. On the ceiling in the center of the room was a glass box and within the box was the cube.

"Try not to let your shield down for too long," GLaDOS said coldly.

Chelsea was frozen in fear and indecision for a second. She did not want to have to kill these robots, but she doubted whether or not she had the ability to block all those rockets.

"I guess this really is hopeless," Chelsea said.

Chelsea dissolved the shield that was holding up her feet and she began to fall towards the toxic pools.

As she fell, she sang, "Earth below us drifting, falling. Floating weightless, we are going hooooooooome!"

She then quickly created a shield ball around her body just before she entered the water. Chelsea was then under the water.

"Chelsea, what are you doing?" Jeffrey yelled in a panic.

"I'm going to find our way out of here," Chelsea replied.

"You can't do that like this," Jeffrey said. "We'll both suffocate."

"I can't go up there, Jeff!"

"Why not? The test looks simple enough."

"Simple? I have to avoid being shot by God knows how many turrets!"

"You have your shields. You can block them!"

"I can block bullets, Jeff! I don't know if I can block rockets. They're stronger, and I don't want to have to kill the robots to protect myself!"

"But you were fine doing it before!"

"I'm not fine doing it anymore, not since I saw Terry! I looked into that turret's eye and saw how scared he was. All those other robots feel the exact same way. I can't just murder them like she wants me to. They're just helpless slaves!"

A moment of silence passed before Jeffrey finally responded.

"Then don't kill them," Jeffrey said very gently. "Just block them. You will be able to. Trust me! Your shield is strong enough to keep the molecular bonds in the pool from getting in here. It was strong enough to hold back those platforms from coming together too. Your shields are strong, Chelsea, and if they could resist all that we've faced so far with no problem then the odds are that they should be able to resist anything."

Chelsea smiled and said, "You're right, Jeffrey. They should be. They have been able to so far."

"I would ask you if you want to pray but we are going to suffocate if you don't move soon. So, how about this? I'll pray and you get us out of here."

"That would work for me."

Chelsea flew her bubble up and flew past the surface of the toxic pool. She created a disc under her feet and leaned against one of the legs of the platform.

"I thought that you were going to commit suicide," GLaDOS said coldly.

"I changed my mind," Chelsea said.

"You can't fool me you know," GLaDOS said. "I know what you were really up to, and I have to say that you are the worst escape artist that I have ever seen. I'm serious. If all the people of the world who made bad escape plans came together and created a country, you would be their president."

"I've been able to escape from you several times, so I don't think that I'm half bad," Chelsea said.

"Well, if you're done wasting my time, I'll ask you to get on with the test," GLaDOS said.

"Sure thing," Chelsea said. "I just have one question for you. Have you ever heard of ABBA?"

"ABBA?" GLaDOS asked in confusion. "Never heard of them."

The name did sound somewhat familiar as if she had heard it before, but she did not want to give Chelsea the satisfaction.

Chelsea flew upwards very quickly as she pulled a shield around herself. As she flew upwards, the close by turrets and the rocket turrets began to fire at her. She managed to retain her composure however and sang a song by ABBA.

"I have a dream, a song to sing to help me cope with anything," Chelsea sang as she flew upwards. "If you see the wonder of a fairy tale you can take the future even if you fail."

Jeffrey was right. Chelsea's shield was able to withstand the blasts. As she approached the ceiling, more rocket turrets aimed, beeped, and fired towards her shield.

"I believe in angels, something good in everything I see," Chelsea sang as she got closer. "I believe in angels. When I know the time is right for me, I'll cross the stream-I have a dream."

She knew what she had to do. Chelsea had to make the rocket turrets fire at the box in order to break it and make the cube fall out.

She flew towards the box and sang, "I have a dream, a fantasy, to help me through reality, and my destination makes it worth the while, pushing through the darkness still another mile."

Chelsea stopped under the box, the rocket turrets aimed and fired, and she flew downwards.

"I believe in angels, something good in everything I see," Chelsea sang as she moved. "I believe in angels!"

The rockets hit the box breaking it open and causing the cube inside to fall out.

Chelsea flew quickly after the falling cube and sang, "When I know the time is right for me, I'll cross the stream - I have a dream."

She tried catching it with her portal gun but the gun would not catch it because her shield was in the way. Chelsea dissolved her shield for just a second in order to catch the cube. Once she did, she pulled the shield back around her body. Chelsea then flew quickly towards the door.

"I'll cross the stream - I have a dream," Chelsea sang as she flew.

The bullets and rockets bounced off her shield but Chelsea felt a surprising amount of serenity. The Spirit of God kept her heart strong in peace. Chelsea finally reached the platform on the other side of the room, dissolved her shield to drop the cube on the button, and then flew straight through the open door.

Chelsea turned the corner of the hallway and sat down against the wall. The camera in the corner stared at her as she sat down breathing hard and exhausted from her effort. Chelsea looked back at the camera.

"I have a dream, a song to sing, to help me cope with anything," Chelsea sang as she stared back in defiant hope while breathing hard. "If you see the wonder of a fairy tale, you can take the future even if you fail."

GLaDOS stared back in her in wonder at her defiance. Chelsea sat for another minute and before she made herself get up. Chelsea then stood up and turned to walk down the hall.

She sang as she walked, "I believe in angels, something good in everything I see. I believe in angels! When I know the time is right for me, I'll cross the stream - I have a dream. I'll cross the stream - I have a dream."

Chelsea kept walking forward when GLaDOS decided to respond.

"You have rejected your only chance to ever have a dream come true you know," GLaDOS said coldly. "Because of that, your dream will never come true."

Chelsea turned around and said, "That is not the dream that I was referring to. I was talking about the dream of escaping this place. I will go outside again! I will see the blue sky and smell the plants, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"We'll see about that," GLaDOS said gently. "I urge you not to get your hopes up too high though. Thousands of test subjects have died believing something similar."

"That won't happen to me," Chelsea said defiantly. "God is with me."

"We'll see about that, sparrow," GLaDOS said calmly in a way that hid her annoyance.

Chelsea rolled her eyes and kept walking. She walked down the hall and turned the left corner. To her dismay, there was another door with another test behind it. After groaning inwardly, Chelsea decided to look around. It seemed that she was to go into a hallway with a turret to greet her upon entering.

"You never get tired of causing pointless misery," Chelsea said. "Do you?"

"You are mistaken," GLaDOS said. "The misery is not pointless at all. We are furthering the cause of science."

"By doing something completely useless?" Chelsea asked.

"Science is not about why but why not," GLaDOS said without really thinking about it.

"You don't really know why you're doing this," Chelsea said in a moment of clarity. "Do you? You just do what you're programmed to do because you aren't bothering to think for yourself. That Johnson guy robbed you even of that."

GLaDOS was taken aback by what Chelsea said about their CEO. She did not know how to respond to her.

Meanwhile, Chelsea walked towards the turret and put up her shield so that the bullets it fired would not hurt her.

"If you ask me, this whole place was a brothel," Chelsea said angrily. "It was a place where people sold their souls in order to get something worthless and were destroyed in the process."

"You're wrong," GLaDOS said back.

"Am I?" Chelsea said.

She created a disc under her, flew over the turret and around the corner, and to her surprise, met a dead end. She looked to her right and saw a horizontal slit in the wall. It was obvious what she had to do.

As she fired the orange portal onto the wall in front of her, Chelsea sang, "There is a house in New Orleans they call the Rising Sun and it's been the ruin of many a poor boy and God, I know I'm one."

She fired the blue portal through the slit onto the wall next to her that she could see through the slit, and she continued to sing, "My mother was a tailor."

Chelsea flew through the portal and sang, "She sewed my new blue jeans."

Chelsea saw that there wasn't a turret around so she dissolved her shield. She looked at the wall and saw a vertical slit revealing a much larger room. Chelsea looked on the floor behind her and saw a ball.

"My father was a gambling man down in New Orleans," Chelsea sang as she looked around.

She fired an orange portal on the wall in front of her and then fired a blue one at an angle on the wall outside of the slit while singing, "Now the only thing a gambler needs is a suitcase and a truck and the only time he's satisfied is when he's on a trump."

Chelsea turned around, flew close to the ground, and picked up the ball. She then flew through the portal into the open room. The room was an open room of moon rock with a pipe that was clearly meant to dispense something. There were two generators on the floor that the ball could be slipped into. Chelsea looked across the room and saw a line of mashing spike plates leading to the exit in front of her in a narrow glass hallway. These mashing plates fell at regular intervals. Chelsea knew that if she could time it right she could get across unscathed. Chelsea put the ball down on the first generator and the pipe started dispensing its substance. It was the orange speed gel. Chelsea lifted the ball and placed it on the second generator and the exit door opened.

Chelsea knew what she had to do. She placed an orange portal on the floor that the orange gel pipe would be leaking onto and placed a blue portal on the wall just in front of the narrow hallway. Chelsea then moved the ball from the second generator to the first.

As the orange gel did its work, Chelsea sang, "Oh mother, tell your children not to do what I have done. Spend your lives in sin and misery in the House of the Rising Sun."

The walkway going under the mashing spike plates was soon covered in orange gel. Chelsea picked up the ball and moved it back to the second generator so that the door would open. The door opened and Chelsea walked to the narrow hallway.

As she walked, she sang, "Well, I got one foot on the platform, the other foot on the train. I'm goin' back to New Orleans to wear that ball and chain."

Chelsea arrived at the hallway and mentally prepared to go. She was scared to death, but she was going to keep going anyway. However before she went for it, she sang the last lyric of the song.

"Well, there is a house in New Orleans they call the Rising Sun and it's been the ruin of many a poor boy and God, I know I'm one," Chelsea sang.

After saying a quick prayer, she looked ahead and focused on what she needed to do. After waiting for the mashing spike plates to go down, Chelsea dashed across the floor on the orange gel quickly making it through the exit just as the plates were going down.

Chelsea leaned against the wall and breathed hard for a few moments as she looked back at what she had just passed through. After saying a prayer of thankfulness, she turned to walk down the stairs to the elevator.

"You damn hippie with your damn hippie songs corrupting our youth and bringing this nation to ruin," GLaDOS said suddenly and angrily.

Chelsea looked up at her in absolute confusion. From the way GLaDOS had said it, it was evident that she was not saying words from her own mind but quoting someone else.

"What?" Chelsea asked in confusion.

GLaDOS quickly realized what had happened. Those words did not come from her mouth but from someone else, specifically from him. She had slipped up in front of her test subject once again and to make matters worse, she could not do anything to cover up her mistake. GLaDOS knew that the more she stalled the worse things would be so she had to make the subject move along while she thought of a way to save face.

"Get in the elevator and go into your next test, sparrow," GLaDOS said quickly.

Chelsea walked to the elevator and allowed the doors to close behind her. As the elevator went down, Jeffrey resumed his perch on her left shoulder.

"What was that?" Chelsea asked in amazement.

"I would say that you are getting to her," Jeffrey said.

"Yes, but why did she or he or whoever that was say that they hated hippie music? I guess Caroline must have not liked it. What's wrong with her?" Chelsea said as she sat down on the ground.

"I guess she just didn't like it and you're going to have to sing some different songs. May I suggest some hymns?" Jeffrey replied.

"I seriously doubt that Caroline was religious at all," Chelsea said skeptically. "I guess I will have to figure out what else to sing, but why would they not like that music?"

"Older people tend to not like music that the younger generation creates," Jeffrey said. "You think that could be it?"

A lightbulb finally turned on in Chelsea's mind.

"That is exactly it, Jeff," Chelsea said as she stood up. "She comes from a completely different culture than we do. Caroline had a different experience and view of life than we would have had in society if there wasn't an apocalypse. Aperture started in like 1947, right? That would mean that Caroline would have primarily been a young woman during the late 1940's and early 1950's. What do you think of when you think about the culture of that time period?"

"Well," Jeffrey said. "That was when World War II ended so…rock and roll, racism, poodle skirts, income inequality, conformity…What do you want me to say?"

Chelsea rolled her eyes and said, "A new culture was taking place that the nation had not known in a long time. It was a culture of excitement and hope for the future. Aperture is a testament to that. She would not have been one of the rebellious kids but one of the adults marching on to a better future that they were assured they could create and they trusted every institution that was there would make that possible. We have to figure out a way to reach that adult from back then, which means I'm going to have to reach back pretty far in my music catalog."

"I thought that you knew about a lot of music," Jeffrey said. "You're the one who listens to those old radio show podcasts."

"That doesn't mean I remember every single song!" Chelsea exclaimed. "I do not have as much to work with. I hope I can remember enough. I'll have to ask God's help."

"I can help, too," Jeffrey said. "I'll see if I remember any works, too. I can whisper them in your ear if I think of any."

"As long as she doesn't see you, it's fine by me," Chelsea said.

She sank to the floor once again and stared out the window. Her next task would not be easy but it would be a better shot at reaching GLaDOS than previously. She would have to make her think of her early life. That would be difficult to get her to do, but it would be worth it because that was the time that Caroline was most innocent and most human before Aperture warped her mind for the worst.


	28. Chapter 28

While the elevator continued to roll downwards, Chelsea was sitting on the floor hitting the back of her head against the wall.

"What are you doing?" Jeffrey asked feeling the motion of her rocking forward and backward while he was in the form of an ice pack.

"I'm trying…to think…of a mental playlist…of songs…to sing," Chelsea said as she continued hitting her head on the back of the elevator.

"Are you banging your head on the back of the elevator?" Jeffrey said. "That's what it sounds like you're doing, but I can't see when I'm in this form."

"Maybe," Chelsea said.

"You need to stop doing that," Jeffrey said. "You could lose brain cells."

"On the contrary, it helps me think," Chelsea said as she stopped banging her head and let it rest on the back of the elevator. "Besides that, it gets my mind off the tingling in my brain."

"It started again?" Jeffrey asked in concern.

"Yes, it has," Chelsea said in a sigh. "You know, I hypothesize that the adrenal vapor in our air supply may be making it worse somehow."

"It just might be, but how about you talk to me instead of hurting yourself? How many songs have you picked out so far?"

"I've thought of about six songs so far, and one of them is from a Disney movie."

"That is good start."

"Not good enough for me," Chelsea said. "Most of them are romance songs."

"Most songs are romance songs if you think about it," Jeffrey said.

"Yes," Chelsea said. "But I don't want her to think I'm flirting with her."

"Chelsea, she knows that you're against homosexuality," Jeffrey said. "I seriously doubt that she will think that."

The elevator finally came to a stop, Chelsea stood up as Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a fly and returned to his position on the back of her neck, and the elevator doors opened. Chelsea walked through the doors and stopped when she heard GLaDOS's voice.

"Due to your suicidal tendencies, I have decided to start medicating you with Aperture Science anti-depressants," GLaDOS said.

"What suicidal tendencies?" Chelsea asked incredulously. "I'm not depress…OW!"

Chelsea looked over to see that a doctor robot had in one move grabbed her right arm and injected her with an unknown substance. She felt Jeffrey move around in her hair as she stared at the robot who was done injecting before she had even had time to react. The doctor robot pulled out the syringe, placed a band aid on the spot, ran into the elevator and went back up towards the surface.

Chelsea grabbed her right arm in fear and asked, "What have you done to me?"

"Though it is not necessary, it is good that you feel afraid," GLaDOS said coldly. "Your faster heartbeat will really help the drug to work faster. Anyways, that drug was only the medication that I mentioned before. All it will do is help you not to feel depressed. Might I ask, how are you feeling?"

"I feel pissed off because as I was going to say I'm not depressed!" Chelsea yelled. "You're trying to turn me into a damned vegetable!"

"I am only trying to treat your ailments," GLaDOS said calmly. "It is not very often that I receive a test subject such as yourself with so many mental problems. I simply am looking for the medicine that will help you the most."

"If you want to help me, then why the hell won't you bother to treat the burn that I received on my left shoulder?!" Chelsea yelled as she gestured towards the spot with her left hand.

"It is against testing protocol to treat the injuries of test subjects before they complete all the tests," GLaDOS said coldly.

"You're despicable," Chelsea said as she walked down the hallway towards her ninth test.

This medicine worked even more quickly than the other medicine did. Chelsea felt nervous about what she felt was going on inside her. The medicine made her feel emotionally numb. She felt no anxiety, fear, or anything else any longer. In spite of that, she was upset. These medicines were developed for people who really needed the help but on her they were being used for control. Even though her body would not let her feel the emotion, Chelsea was angry. Chelsea stopped and stared at the camera that was on the wall looking at her as she was about to enter the room.

Then with all the emotion she could muster, she said, "You cannot control me like this you know. All these drugs that you force into me may control my emotions, but they will never change my will. The will runs deeper than anything I feel. It is inside my soul and that is something that you don't have the power to destroy even if you do think you're the devil. You have two choices. Either you accept it or you will go insane from your efforts to break it because it's not going anywhere."

Chelsea walked into the room before GLaDOS had the opportunity to respond. She looked around and saw that there were two lasers pointing horizontally, two lasers going vertically, one laser pointing at a left angle, and one laser pointing at a right angle, six lasers in all. There were also six laser redirection cubes littered all over the floor. Then on the other side of the room was a door with generators forming a square around it. Chelsea had to figure out a way to get all six lasers directed to the other side of the room while only using her portals once. She breathed in and out deeply as she picked up her first cube and decided upon her first song, the only Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong song that she remembered all the way through.

"You won't be satisfied until you break my heart," Chelsea sang as she positioned the cube in front of the laser that was vertically pointed down from the ceiling in such a way that it connected to the generator. "You're never satisfied until the teardrops start."

"I tried to shower you with love and kisses," Chelsea sang as she picked up another cube and walked to the other laser that was horizontally pointing across the room. "But all I ever get from you is naggin' and braggin'. My poor heart is saggin'."

Chelsea placed the cube so that its horizontal laser was also going into a generator while singing, "The way you toss my heart around's a cryin' shame. I'll bet you wouldn't like it if I did the same. You're only happy tearin' all my dreams apart. Oh, you won't be satisfied until you break my heart."

The second cube was able to get the third generator going but unfortunately for Chelsea the rest of the test was going to be more difficult. She had to figure out a way to get the rest of the lasers to go to their proper place. Chelsea paced around in an effort to get an idea for what she should do.

"No, you won't be satisfied until you break my heart," Chelsea sang while pacing. "You're never satisfied until the teardrops start. I tried to shower you with love and kisses, baby. All I ever get from you is naggin' and braggin'. My poor heart is saggin'."

Chelsea finally got an idea. She used her discs and moved them under the four remaining boxes. However, she quickly realized that she didn't have the mental capacity to direct the movement of four discs at one time so she dissolved them and allowed the boxes to fall to the ground.

"The way you toss my heart around's, is a cryin' shame," Chelsea sang in frustration. "I'll bet you wouldn't like it if I did the same. You're only happy tearin' all my dreams apart. Babe, you won't be satisfied until you break my heart."

Chelsea quickly got another idea. She picked up a cube with her portal gun and walked towards one of the lasers that was hitting the wall at an angle.

Chelsea sang as she walked over to the laser and moved the cube so that the laser was hitting a specific spot on the wall, "The way you toss my heart around's a cryin' shame. Oh, yes! I'll bet you wouldn't like it if I did the same. You only tearing all my little dreams apart. Oh, you won't be satisfied until you break my heart!"

Chelsea finished her song and thought for a moment about what her next song should be. The camera had not moved at all when she sang the previous song, but Chelsea was not willing to give up. She decided upon Al Jolson's famous song that he would sing all the time in all the old radio programs that Chelsea listened to on her father's iPad, changing the lyrics where appropriate of course.

"I'm happy, so happy, walkin' on air," Chelsea sang happily as she walked over to get her next cube. "The why and the wherefore is someone I care for!"

Chelsea picked up the cube with the portal gun and walked over to the next laser while continuing to sing, "I'm yellin', I'm tellin' folks everywhere. I know that he loves me, so what do I care?!"

Chelsea positioned the cube so that the laser was hitting the same spot on the wall while singing, "There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above. Oh the sun shines bright, the world's alright 'cause I'm in love!"

She then fired an orange portal while singing, "There's a rainbow around my shoulder and it fits me like a glove!"

Chelsea then turned around and walked back to the door while continuing to sing, "Let it blow and storm, I'll be warm `cause I'm in love!"

Chelsea fired her blue portal just a few paces from the door and watched as the two lasers went into the generators above the door while she was singing, "Hallelujah, how the folks'll stare when they see that great big solitaire that my little sugar baby is goin' a-wear!"

Chelsea was now at a loss for what else to do. There were two generators left that she had to get working, and the lasers were both firing horizontally from different places in the room. She could not get them to go through the portal that she already created and have them go where they were supposed to.

Chelsea started pacing around the room while thinking of what to do and continued to sing, "There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above and I'm shouting so the world will know that I'm in love! There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above and I'm shouting so the world will know that I'm in love! There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above! Oh, the sun shines bright, the world's all right `cause I'm in love! There's a rainbow around my shoulder and it fits me like a glove! Let it blow and storm, I'll be warm `cause I'm in love!"

Chelsea finally came up with an idea for what she would do. She would now use her discs and not have to move the portals at all.

Chelsea walked to each cube and created a disc under each of them while continuing to sing, "Hallelujah, how the folks'll stare when they see that great big solitaire that my little sugar baby, baby, baby, baby, she's goin' a-wear!"

She then moved the discs so that the cubes were each positioned at their lasers and the lasers were hitting the generators they were supposed to while finishing out her song, "There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above and I'm shouting so the world will know that I'm in love!"

The door opened, and Chelsea smiled in satisfaction as she quickly walked through the door.

"Nice work," GLaDOS said. "The medicine appears to be working already. You are in a much better mood."

Chelsea sighed in frustration. Her last song had not worked either, but as she had four other songs to choose from, she could afford to be optimistic for the time being.

Chelsea walked up the stairs and started to sing optimistically, "I know you! I walked with you once upon a dream! I know you! The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam! I know it's true that visions are seldom what they seem, but if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once the way you did once upon a dream!"

As she was about to enter the elevator, she continued to sing, "I know you…"

However, she suddenly stopped singing as she heard GLaDOS continue to sing, "I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you. The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam. I know it's true that visions are seldom what they seem, but if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once the way you did once upon a dream."

Chelsea turned around and stared on at the camera completely in shock and unable to believe what she was hearing.

GLaDOS finished singing and said as if in a vision, "I remember that song. I was in a movie theatre. I was too old to be there, but I wanted to be there anyway. There was a fairy with horns on her head who I liked very much."

"You mean Maleficent?" Chelsea said in disbelief and confusion over how to react. "She was the evil fairy who cursed the princess. Why would you like someone like that?"

"She was misunderstood and rejected by the others, so she had to get back at them and get what she deserved the only way she knew how," GLaDOS said.

It was then that GLaDOS snapped back to reality. She realized what she had just experienced and what she had just said. GLaDOS had had another memory, another memory from her, and lost her composure in front of her test subject once again. As she stared back at Chelsea, she realized something else. Chelsea had wanted this to happen. Every song she sang these past few test chambers was a song from the 20th century, a time period with songs that GLaDOS could potentially recognize. That girl was so cruel.

"What are you staring at, sparrow?" GLaDOS said. "Get into the elevator."

Chelsea turned back around and entered the elevator. The doors shut behind her, and she rode it down to her next test as GLaDOS figured out what to do.


	29. Chapter 29

Meanwhile back on the catwalks, Sylvie's group was continuing to follow the Oracle Turret. Kayla was flying in the air carrying Alpha next to her and Albina was flying just behind the group while Sylvie, P-Body, and Atlas were walking quickly in the front just behind the Oracle Turret. They had flown down a good number of levels and were continuing to follow him closely. The turret seemed that he knew where he was going. He had a supernatural certainty that was almost unbelievable, but they trusted him. So much so that Sylvie was barely keeping of track of where they were in the facility.

"How much farther, Sylvie?" Kayla asked as she was munching on a potato.

"I don't know," Sylvie said. "I cannot read the turret's visions. Remember?"

Kayla sighed and said, "I guess it can't be helped, but I wish that we could know at least whether or not we are close to Chelsea."

"You need to be patient," Albina said.

"How can I be patient?" Kayla said impatiently while chewing. "Don't you want to save Chelsea and Jeffrey?!"

"We cannot rush forward without knowing where we are going or thinking our actions through," Albina responded calmly. "You have to remember where we are. If we try to rush ahead, we could get lost, and if we try to act without thinking, we could get ourselves killed. Who would we be able to save then?"

"I guess you're right," Kayla said continuing to chew. "I just wish that we would make progress faster. This suspense is killing me!"

"Just pray for patience," Albina said with a smile. "Also, quit chewing with your mouth open. You look like an uncivilized pig."

"You're so rude," Kayla said smiling.

"Says the girl who talks with her mouth full," Albina said.

It was then that the oracle turret finally stopped. Everyone else stopped behind him, too. P-Body tapped Sylvie on the shoulder to ask what was going on. Albina and Kayla quickly echoed his sentiment.

"Sylvie, are we here?" Albina asked.

"Yeah, is this where she is?" Kayla asked.

Sylvie walked in front of the oracle turret and quickly asked, "What's going on? Why did you stop? Are we here?"

"We are where we need to be," the oracle turret said. "Someone you need to free is inside that box."

The group looked to their right and saw a testing chamber.

"Didn't see that before," Kayla said out loud. "Wait a second, does that mean they're in there?!"

"Let me see," Sylvie said calmly.

Sylvie shut her eyes and focused. She hacked into the camera and looked around inside the box. It was a chamber with a toxic pool and three platforms. Chelsea was not in there, but a lone turret was. He was playing a melody that Sylvie recognized because it was a melody from a song that Chelsea listened to all the time. It was Terry, the defective turret that Chelsea befriended. He had to be. There was no other explanation. Sylvie was amazed. How in the world could the oracle turret have known where he would be before Chelsea even mentioned him? He must have really been psychic. Sylvie logged her brain off of the hacked camera so that she could communicate with the others once again.

"Is Chelsea in there, Sylvie?" Kayla anxiously asked.

"No, but Terry is," Sylvie replied.

"Terry?" Albina said. "You mean the turret that Chelsea saved? He's in there?"

"Yes," Sylvie said.

Then turning to Alpha and Oracle who were both standing on the ground at this point, she said, "I don't know how he knew it, but it's true. The oracle turret really is psychic."

"So, let's get him out," Kayla said. "We have no time to lose. If Chelsea was here not that long ago, then that means that she's not too far ahead now."

"Good deduction work, Kayla," Albina said. "Sylvie, be sure to tap into his mind before you do anything else. We would not want him to shoot us because we aren't singing."

"I know," Sylvie said in slight annoyance. "Just give me a minute to focus."

Sylvie focused, and she was able to tap into the turret's mind. While the impulse to kill was much weaker than his desire to be musical, it was still present, so Sylvie shut it off. Terry felt slightly stranger on the inside as his eye turned from bright red to green. The change inside was so noticeable that he even stopped making music.

"What is going on?" Terry said to himself.

"Okay," Sylvie said. "It's off and now all we have to do is bust him out."

Sylvie focused her mind and commanded the walls close to her to come down. The walls to the turret's left immediately fell down to reveal the trio of mutants and four robots.

Terry was shaking in his place as he asked, "Who are you?"

Sylvie looked forward and said, "Kayla, fly me over there."

"Got it," Kayla said in response.

Kayla used her telekinesis to lift Sylvie from the walkway to the platform where the turret was standing.

"How did you do that?" Terry asked continuing to panic.

Sylvie landed and then walked to the shaking turret. She crouched down next to him and touched her hand to his head. Then she started humming the melody that the turret was playing to himself earlier. Terry listened to the melody and immediately recognized it.

"You know her?" Terry asked.

"Yes, I do," Sylvie said. "She is a little sister to me."

"She saved me," Terry said looking down. "She didn't have to, but she did."

"I know she did, and she asked us to save you," Sylvie said very gently. "If you come with me, you will see her again, and you will see the green world. You can trust us. We want to help you and every other turret in this place. We want you to be free to live without fear. Will you please come with us?"

"I want to see her and see the green that she was talking about," Terry said. "I'll go."

Sylvie made his legs work, and for the first time in his life, Terry was able to move. He shook his front left leg in amazement as Sylvie picked him up.

"Let's go, Kayla," Sylvie yelled across the platform.

"Okay," Kayla responded.

Telekinetically, Kayla lifted the pair back onto the platform. Terry trembled in shyness as he beheld all the people there. However, no sooner had Sylvie put Terry down than had the Oracle Turret decided to keep moving.

"Wait, where are you going now?" Sylvie yelled after him as he kept walking.

"There is another place where we have to go now," Oracle responded.

"I guess he had another vision," Albina said as she flew up in the air once again. "Oh, well! Let's go."

Sylvie walked on ahead, Atlas and P-Body ran behind her, Kayla picked up the two turrets and followed behind, and Albina took up the rear.

Terry was quiet for a moment taking everything in, but Alpha knew how he was feeling and decided to address his thoughts.

"I bet that you're wondering what's going on," Alpha said.

"Yes," Terry said.

"They are humans who have been blessed by God with mutant powers," Alpha said quickly.

"Oh," Terry said quietly.

"Yeah," Alpha said gesturing with his front right leg toward Albina. "The white lady is Albina. She can fly and freeze things."

Albina nodded her head to the two of them.

"The lady without arms and legs is Kayla," Alpha said gesturing to Kayla. "She makes everything fly."

"The word for it is telekinesis," Kayla said.

"The blond haired lady is Sylvie," Alpha said gesturing to Sylvie. "She can read the minds of machines and get them to do things."

"We're glad to have you here, Terry," Sylvie said.

"The one in front of us is the oracle turret," Alpha said.

"_The _oracle turret?" Terry asked in surprise.

"Yes," Alpha said. "He has visions of the future and now he's leading us to their friend."

"Wow!" Terry said.

"Those other two robots used to work for GLaDOS," Alpha said. "The tall one is P-Body and the shorter one is Atlas. They help Sylvie."

"Okay," Terry replied.

Terry was silent for a moment before he plucked up the courage to respond.

"Was she one of you?" Terry asked.

"Yes," Sylvie replied. "Her name is Chelsea. GLaDOS kidnapped her and another one of our friends. Now, we are going to save them and then kill GLaDOS."

"How?" Terry asked nervously.

"We don't have an exact plan yet," Kayla admitted. "We're going to tear her apart with our mutant powers most likely."

"It's okay though," Alpha said. "God is with us, so we are definitely going to succeed."

"He's right," Albina said. "We are coming up with a plan. You don't have to worry. We are going to win by the grace of God."

"Okay," Terry said uncertainly.


	30. Chapter 30

Chelsea was in the elevator when she heard the good news about Terry. She was happy for his freedom. She really was, but at the moment, her mind was occupied. She felt conflicted about GLaDOS. After listening to what her father had to say, Chelsea sat down at the elevator and continued to think.

"So she sympathized with Maleficent?" Jeffrey said as an ice pack breaking the silence. "That's weird."

"Actually, it's not altogether surprising," Chelsea said. "You remember what she said about her, right?"

"Yeah, that she was getting what she felt she deserved," Jeffrey said.

"Yeah," Chelsea said. "That must have been her own emotions seeping out. GLaDOS or Caroline or whoever she considers herself to be must have felt that she had been wronged her whole life, and that by acting the way she did, she was only getting what she really had earned. She must have felt so bitter about all that happened to her. I thought she was just an evil bitch."

"I hate to play devil's advocate here, but who's to say that she isn't," Jeffrey said. "We both know that what happened to her was unfair, but that doesn't excuse her being evil."

"No, it doesn't, Jeffrey," Chelsea said. "But I think that it may go a great deal towards explaining why she is the way she is. That's all. Her life must have been awful. I hate to say it, but I am beginning to understand why my mother started to sympathize with her. She is despicable and she did many horrible things, but she was a real person. It may just be the drugs talking, Jeff, but I'm beginning to feel less angry with her."

The elevator stopped, Chelsea stood up, and Jeffrey returned to his perch on the back of her neck. She stepped out of the elevator and started walking towards the stairs.

"Please excuse what happened at the end of the last chamber," GLaDOS said. "I appear to have been malfunctioning."

Chelsea stopped in her tracks, raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms, and said, "Look, we both know that that is not what really happened. Why can't you tell me the truth?"

"You're being obstinate as usual," GLaDOS said. "Maybe I should inject you with more anti-depressants to put you in a better mood."

Chelsea unfolded her arms, created a disc with her left hand, and said, "Try to inject me again and see what happens."

"Calm down," GLaDOS said. "I was only joking. Anyways, I have deducted that it is your incessant singing that is causing my malfunctions."

"Really," Chelsea said skeptically as she dissolved her disc. "How did you figure that one out?"

"I am not required to share that information with you," GLaDOS said coldly.

"Sure," Chelsea said sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

"Anyhow, since I cannot gag you or remove your vocal chords, I have decided to play music for you," GLaDOS said.

"What kind of music?" Chelsea asked in curiosity.

"You'll see," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea rolled her eyes and walked up the stairs to take her tenth test.

"You know if you keep rolling your eyes like that they will get stuck that way," GLaDOS said.

"That's just an old wives' tale," Chelsea retorted.

"You seem to believe in them," GLaDOS said harshly.

Chelsea resisted the temptation to respond to her blasphemy and kept going. She entered the room and walked past the sign that let her know she was taking her tenth test. Chelsea listened as GLaDOS began playing music. It was Debussy's first arabesque. Chelsea loved listening to the Impressionist's music. It always gave her inspiration whenever she was trying to focus on something artistic or anything really. The music itself was an invitation for the senses to dream. Chelsea recognized it right away, because of all the impressionists, she played Debussy's music the most.

"Arabesque number one by Debussy," Chelsea said out loud.

"Yes," GLaDOS said in surprise. "How did you know?"

"I love impressionist music," Chelsea said. "I'm also a big musicphile."

"That's not even a word," GLaDOS said.

"Well, it should be," Chelsea said in a snarky attitude.

Chelsea looked around and contemplated how she should solve her test while GLaDOS watched slightly impressed that Chelsea recognized this music. It was not like Debussy was an obscure composer, but this work of his was not as popular as "Clair de Lune" so she had to know his work in order to recognize it. That was a sign that the girl was more cultured than GLaDOS realized she was.

In the testing chamber was a large black tiled room with an emancipation grid dividing one side from the other. On the side of the emancipation grid that Chelsea was on was a pipe leaking the orange gel onto a white panel with another white panel on the wall behind her. She looked ahead and saw that beyond the emancipation grid were two mashing spike plates hitting each other horizontally at regular intervals. Chelsea flew upwards and on the other side of plates was the exit and a button. If there was a button, there had to be a cube to hold it down. Chelsea looked down from her disc and found the cube right by the ramp. She landed her disc and looked up. The only problem would be getting the disc pass the emancipation grid, but it didn't take long for Chelsea to think of a solution. It was actually pretty simple.

As the music continued to play, Chelsea fired an orange portal onto the panel that the orange gel was leaking onto. Then she fired a blue portal onto the panel that was on the wall behind her. The gel instantly went all over the ramp, covering it completely. Chelsea then picked up the cube with her portal gun and stood on the right side of the ramp.

The calming music of Debussy was actually not disguising how she really felt. Because of the anti-depressants, she felt peaceful inside. But if she could feel her emotions, Chelsea would have felt scared. Nonetheless, she breathed in and out and mentally prepared herself to go.

Chelsea pulled the force field up around her body and flew it to where the ramp began. After waiting for the mashing plates to come together a few times, she decided that it was time to go. Chelsea let the plates come together one more time, and then she ran on the ramp. She moved quickly over it, flying through the emancipation grid that did not dissolve her cube because of her protective shield, and landed on the platform in front of the door. After breathing in and out a few times, Chelsea placed the cube upon the button causing the door to open.

Chelsea lingered at the open door however so that she could hear the song finish.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS said.

"What do you think?" Chelsea retorted. "I'm listening to the music."

GLaDOS said nothing, but continued to watch her test subject in fascination. It wasn't many people who could appreciate something beautiful in the middle of danger. It was actually kind of amazing. The song finished, and Chelsea walked through the door.

"Nice work," GLaDOS said as Chelsea stepped through the door. "Aren't you glad I made you take those anti-depressants?"

Chelsea only glared at her over her shoulder once as she continued to walk to the elevator.

"Now that your emotions have been neutralized, you can focus your mind on what is important," GLaDOS said. "That will be important as you go on, because the tests can only get harder from here."

"That kind of help is unauthorized," Chelsea said turning around right before she reached the elevator to go down. "Isn't it? You're not supposed to be helping me like this. Are you?"

"To be honest, if the scientists were alive, I would probably not be able to do most of what I have done with you," GLaDOS said. "However the last time I checked, they were all dead, and I was running the facility. Therefore, I can do whatever I want as long as it suits the needs of science of course."

"How do you even determine that?" Chelsea asked skeptically. "Is it just what will satisfy you or satisfy the needs of mankind or…?"

"Yes," GLaDOS said sarcastically and then with a false twinge of kindness. "Now, get into your cage, my good little sparrow."

Chelsea glared at her and got into the elevator. The doors shut, and the elevator started to go down. Jeffrey shapeshifted into an ice pack and resumed his perch on Chelsea's shoulder while she slumped down to the floor once again.

"I don't feel that scared anymore, Jeff, and that's not a good thing," Chelsea said.

"Why not?" Jeffrey asked in confusion. "It's good to have the peace of God inside your heart."

"Jeffrey," Chelsea said. "I know the difference between a drug-induced peace and a God-induced peace. This is definitely the former."

"How can you tell?" Jeffrey asked. "I'm kind of curious."

"I can tell because I don't feel good about it," Chelsea responded. "When God gives me peace, I feel joyful because I know he is there with me. When these drugs try to give me peace, I feel like I'm being numbed against my will. I can't feel the emotion that I want to feel because it won't let me. That's not good because I'm afraid that it will numb my reaction time."

"You don't have to worry about that. You were able to fight back when you had anesthesia running through your veins. Remember? If you can do that, then this shouldn't be a problem."

"I guess not but there's something else that is worrying me, Jeffrey."

"What?"

"In spite of all that she is doing to me, I feel like I don't have the ability to be mad anymore, but it's not completely because of the drugs."

"Then why is it?"

"I think it might be because I don't want to be mad at her anymore. I can't hate her. It's like God is making me forgive her."

The two went silent for a moment. Before Jeffrey could respond, the elevator stopped, and Jeffrey had to return to his post once again. The elevator doors opened, and Chelsea exited the elevator.

"Feel free to turn your brain off for this one," GLaDOS said. "It's not going to be hard, or at least, it won't be if you do what you're supposed to."

"Doesn't that contradict what you told me before I left the last testing chamber?" Chelsea asked.

"Maybe," GLaDOS said sarcastically.

Chelsea surprisingly couldn't even work up the emotion required to roll her eyes, so she simply sighed and walked up the stairs to take her eleventh test.

"You seem to be calming down a bit," GLaDOS said pouring salt in the wound that she was sure Chelsea was carrying inside. "It seems that the drugs are helping you more and more the longer time they have to take effect, and you were upset about taking them."

Chelsea delivered GLaDOS a glare to let her know that she was still not giving up, and she entered the room.

GLaDOS, out of curiosity, decided to play another song simply to see if Chelsea would recognize it.

Chelsea stopped in her tracks and again recognized the music, "This is by Satie…It's the first Gymnopedie."

"Nice job," GLaDOS said. "I'll give you a bonus if you can tell me who composed this version of the song."

"Debussy," Chelsea said without hesitation.

"Impressive," GLaDOS said. "Perhaps, you aren't as devoid of culture from living as a squatter as I thought you were. How do you know about all this music?"

"It's absolutely amazing what you can find when you raid the storehouses of internet delivery services and any music store in general," Chelsea said crossing her arms.

"I retract my last statement," GLaDOS said sarcastically.

"I'm also just a big music nerd in general," Chelsea said as she uncrossed her arms and continued walking. "I've even been learning how to play 'Clair de Lune' on the piano."

"You really are quite smart," GLaDOS said. "The question is why you invest your mind in art instead of something more practical, like science."

Chelsea frowned and said, "Art is something that shapes the minds of mankind. You and I both know that like science its influence on the world is endless."

"Science is more useful."

"I'd say it's just as valuable when done right."

"Are you going to argue or are you going to test?"

Chelsea rolled her eyes and looked around the room at her testing chamber. GLaDOS as she watched had to admit that she was impressed. The girl was more intelligent and more cultured than anyone would expect someone of her background to be. She was also very passionate, someone who could potentially change the world, someone like Caroline was. GLaDOS couldn't believe that she was feeling this way, but she had to admit to herself that she was feeling more conflicted about Chelsea. She knew what she had to do for science, but her admiration for her was only growing. GLaDOS was beginning to feel more emotional about the matter, and for her, that was never a good thing.

Chelsea looked around and saw a long path of laser gates in front of her that she guessed that she would be expected to fly through. Chelsea pulled a shield around herself and flew forward. She flew through each laser gate with ease, with her shields blocking the lasers. Chelsea reached the last of laser gates and landed on the platform at the end.

Chelsea then flew through the door as it opened automatically on the other side. To her dismay, she found herself a room with not only more laser gates but more testing elements. On the left end of the small landing she was standing on inside a nook, there was a laser that was hitting a white wall. Chelsea wasn't sure what to make of it, so as Satie's second Gymnopedie started, she flew through the laser gates to see what was on the other side.

Chelsea flew through the laser gates one after the other until she reached the other side. On this other side, she found a nook on the left side of the platform that contained a generator with the white wall aimed straight at it. It was then that Chelsea realized what she had to do. She had to connect the laser into this room using the portals, meaning that she had to fly back to the other side of the room in order to do it. Chelsea breathed a deep sigh and fired an orange portal onto the wall opposite of the generator. Then, she flew back through the laser gates and fired a blue portal onto the wall opposite of the laser. The laser gates immediately dissolved, and she flew back to find that the door had also opened. In satisfaction, she flew out of the door and towards the elevator.

"Nice job," GLaDOS said. "For your bonus, you can choose the composer who will play in the next test chamber."

"Okay," Chelsea said looking up in curiosity. "How about the Beatles?"

"No," GLaDOS said humorlessly.

"Okay, then," Chelsea said. "Louis Armstrong?"

"No."

"Enya?"

"No."

"Steven Sondheim?"

"I don't even know who that is."

"Then what can I choose?"

"I only have selections of classical composers, sparrow. You can choose one of them."

"Alright, then! You should have said that in the first place. I choose Camille Saint-Saens."

"Okay, that I can do."

"Good," Chelsea said with an actual smile. "Thank you very much!"

GLaDOS was surprised at her reaction, and when Chelsea realized how she had responded, she quickly ran to the elevator. As the doors shut behind her, she sat down and held her hands over her head.

"What's the matter?" Jeffrey asked flying in front of her as a dragonfly.

"I smiled at her," Chelsea said.

"So?" Jeffrey replied in confusion. "What's so bad about that?"

"I meant it," Chelsea said in dismay. "I really am losing my hatred for her. I'm going to like her before long."

"That's not a bad thing," Jeffrey said. "You are forgiving her because God is making you. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Chelsea laid her arms at her side, and with a heavy sigh said, "No, I guess it isn't. I asked him to because I thought it was what I should do, but I never really wanted to feel anything positive towards her."

"Why not?" Jeffrey responded.

Chelsea looked at him in shock and said, "She ruined my mother's life! She's put me through hell, too! Not to mention the fact that she's a murderer! I don't want to love her. She's done nothing to deserve it."

"Neither have you, technically," Jeffrey said.

"What?" Chelsea responded looking at him in confusion.

"You have done nothing to deserve love, God's love, that is," Jeffrey said calmly. "Nothing anyone does can make them worthy of God's love because all humans are sinners whose actions have hurt God. Yet God loves them and saves them when they return to him, because they are all his. That's why he loves you, that's why he loves me, and that's why he loves her. That's why you have to forgive her too, because she is our sister. Besides, you can't be forgiven of the evils in your heart and refuse to forgive someone else for theirs. That's hypocritical. We are all in the same boat spiritually and no one is any better before God than anyone else, even if she is in your words an evil bitch."

Chelsea looked down at the ground in shame. She realized that Jeffrey was right. Even if GLaDOS was a psychotic, murderous bitch who had ruined many lives, God still loved her as a human, so Chelsea needed to do the same and accept the kind impulses that he was sending to her heart. She silently said a prayer of forgiveness and looked back at Jeffrey.

"You're right, Jeff," Chelsea said. "She was a person made by God, and even if she is a bitch, that's still true. I have to be willing to love her as our sister as much as saying that hurts my pride inside. I will let go of this hate."

"Good," Jeffrey said.

"I wish I could be logical like you all the time," Chelsea said smiling. "Not functioning like a normal human with emotions must be nice. You can think more clearly because they aren't clouding your mind."

Jeffrey, understanding what she meant, was not offended by the comment.

Instead, he responded, "It's not as easy as it looks. It can be hard to deal with people who are very emotional. They tend to think that you don't care."

"That's what you get for being friends with women," Chelsea said smiling.

The elevator stopped, Jeffrey returned to his post, and Chelsea walked out.

"Do you recognize this song?" GLaDOS asked as she immediately began playing the song.

Chelsea recognized it pretty quickly because it was one of her favorite songs.

"This is Danse Macabre," Chelsea said as she continued to walk up the stairs. "It's perfect for Halloween."

"Do you know what the song was originally about?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yeah, my Dad told me that it was music to tell the story of a legend about how the dead would come back to life and dance outside of their graves when the violin player came at midnight on Halloween," Chelsea said as she continued walking.

Then she continued impulsively, "It's a good thing that the violin player doesn't come here or you would have a lot of dancing corpses who you couldn't kill with neurotoxin. I bet you wouldn't enjoy dealing with that."

"No, I wouldn't," GLaDOS said, much to Chelsea's surprise.

Chelsea stopped at the top of the stairs and looked around at the testing chamber. It was a large room. There were two pellet launchers that launched pellets from the ceiling onto the floor and generators that caught the high energy pellets on the ceiling and floor respectively. There were two other pellet catchers, one on a slanted panel located in a nook on her left side and another one in a nook on the right side of the wall located next to a pellet launcher that launched pellets towards a slanted panel aimed towards the wall. Chelsea realized that she needed to deal with each one individually, but unfortunately for her, the wall was also mostly covered in black tiles. There were only three white panels that she could place portals on.

"There is a poem that goes to this song," GLaDOS said. "Do you know it?"

"I can't say I do," Chelsea said then looking forward so that she could look like she was concentrating on what she was doing.

Chelsea could see that GLaDOS was trying to be kind to her in her own way, but this time, she seemed like she was really genuine about it. It made Chelsea uncomfortable, and though she was called to love her back, she was not sure how to respond.

"Zig, zig, zig, Death in cadence, striking a tomb with his heel, Death at midnight plays a dance-tune ,zig, zig, zag, on his violin," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea placed an orange portal under the first pellet that was being fired from the ceiling and looked around for a generator to aim it towards.

"The winter wind blows, and the night is dark; Moans are heard in the linden trees," GLaDOS said. "White skeletons pass through the gloom, running and leaping in their shrouds."

Chelsea saw the generator on the slanted wall. There was a white slanted panel that was right in front of it aiming towards the ceiling, so she knew what to do.

"Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking. You can hear the cracking of the bones of the dancers," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea flew her disc over to the slanted wall and fired a blue portal onto it. All she had to do now was wait.

"A lustful couple sits on the moss so as to taste long lost delights," GLaDOS said as the high energy pellet went through the portal, hit the ceiling, and went straight into the generator. "Zig zig, zig, Death continues the unending scraping on his instrument."

Chelsea smiled in satisfaction and looked around as she figured out what to do next. She looked at the other side of the room and saw the door with one check on it meaning that it was unlocked.

"A veil has fallen!" GLaDOS said. "The dancer is naked. Her partner grasps her amorously. The lady, it's said, is a marchioness or baroness and her green gallant, a poor cartwright. Horror! Look how she gives herself to him, like the rustic was a baron."

Chelsea landed on the floor and looked onto the wall to the nook on the right of her and saw the other pellet generator with the pellet catcher right next to it. She watched as the pellet fired, flew forward, hit a panel that was tilted toward the wall at an angle, hit the wall, and then went back towards the generator where it promptly died. Chelsea recognized this type of test from one her mother had told her about from the first time GLaDOS tested her. On the other side of the tilted panel however was not another tilted panel. Chelsea was not sure of what she was supposed to do or how she was supposed to solve it since she did not have any more panels to work with, so she stopped to think for a minute.

"Zig, zig, zig," GLaDOS said. "What a saraband! They all hold hands and dance in circles."

It suddenly occurred to Chelsea what she had to do. She shook in terror because she knew that it could potentially kill her if she did not do it right. Chelsea dropped her portal gun onto the floor, created a disc that she flew into the air next to the generator, and waited. When the high energy pellet was fired, she created a shield around it so that she could control it. The pellet bounced around chaotically, as Chelsea flew it to the pellet catcher next to it, got the shield very close to the catcher, and opened up the side of it that was closest to the generator. The pellet immediately went into the generator as Chelsea finally breathed a sigh of relief and joy. She could not believe that that had actually worked.

"Zig, zig, zag. You can see in the crowd the king dancing among the peasants," was all GLaDOS said as a response.

Chelsea caught the other two pellets one at a time in their own respective shield balls and took each of them to a pellet catcher thus completing the test. The door opened, Chelsea went to the ground and picked up her portal gun once again, and walked to the door as the music was coming to a close.

"But hist!" GLaDOS said. "All of a sudden, they leave the dance, they push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed. Oh what a beautiful night for the poor world! Long live death and equality!"

Chelsea walked through the door as the music finished.

"Well," GLaDOS said. "What did you think?"

"That test was highly dangerous," Chelsea said. "Forcing me to interact with those pellets like that could have killed me."

"I was not talking about that," GLaDOS said. "I was talking about the poem."

Chelsea looked at the camera suspiciously and, "Since when do you care about knowing my opinion on anything?"

"You seem to have an opinion on everything," GLaDOS said. "I was just wondering what you thought about the poem."

Chelsea thought for a moment and then said, "In a way, the poem is correct about its message. People are equal in death. After someone dies, whatever happens in the world doesn't have any influence on them anymore. They can be free to do whatever they want. That must have appeared attractive to people in a society as restricted as back then. However unfortunately, it is only half true."

"In what way?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea continued to walk towards the elevator and said, "When people die, the world doesn't have any influence on them anymore. In that way, they are free, but they are never free from the influence of God. They're still responsible for whatever they did in their lives good or bad and for who they ultimately gave their souls to. The soul leaves the body after all, so their deeds determine where they go."

Chelsea turned around right before going in and continued, "If people gave themselves to Christ, they will be able to enjoy that freedom and get to be at his side as he remakes the world and forever more. However if they gave themselves to anybody else, they will suffer for the evil they brought into the world for all eternity."

"That's an interesting way of looking at it," GLaDOS said.

"It's like I said before, GLaDOS," Chelsea said. "Everyone is owned by something, but you can decide who your owner is going to be. You may think that you don't, but everyone has a choice."

"Why would anyone decide to be owned by a religion, I mean, relationship like that?" GLaDOS asked.

"How badly do you want to be free?" Chelsea said as she turned back around. "Thanks for the song by the way. I really enjoyed it."

The elevator doors shut, and it went down to the next chamber. As GLaDOS watched, she realized that there was a deep truth behind everything Chelsea was saying. She was intelligent in more ways than one. It was hard to explain but she had something true and something very much alive inside her mind that was something GLaDOS was experiencing for the first time. She saw it every time she talked and every time she did anything. The girl was interesting. Furthermore, GLaDOS hated admitting it to herself, but she enjoyed making this girl happy. It satisfied something inside her to know that she did something kind for her that was not done for the purpose of furthering science. Knowing this would only make the next test that much harder. GLaDOS knew what she had to do, but she actually wasn't looking forward to it.

"The next test may actually hurt me more than it hurts you," GLaDOS said to herself almost sadly. "However for science, it has to be done. It is what owns me, sparrow, and it is what must own you, too."


	31. Chapter 31

As Chelsea was heading towards her thirteenth test, she felt more confident and more ready. She was actually standing during the trip downwards looking outside of the glass and smiling.

"That wasn't so bad," Jeffrey said in his ice pack form. "Was it?"

"No, it wasn't," Chelsea said. "I'm actually feeling better and better about being kind to her. It isn't such a bad thing after all. She may be evil and I can't condone that, but I can still love her and be kind to her."

"That is a very good attitude to have," Jeffrey said.

"I think so, too," Chelsea said. "I just wonder what I should do next."

"Just do whatever the Spirit leads you to do," Jeffrey said. "You should be fine."

Chelsea stared outside the elevator and watched the world as she went down. She really did feel happier about how her relationship with GLaDOS was going. She had no idea of really what the effect of what she said on GLaDOS was, but she did feel like something good was coming out of her effort. Furthermore, it made her happy to know that she was doing something positive with the horrible experience that she had.

The elevator stopped, Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a fly to hide on Chelsea's neck, and Chelsea turned around and exited the elevator so that she could take her thirteenth test.

She noticed that something was off right away when she did not hear any music.

"You're not playing any music," Chelsea said curiously.

"You won't need any for this test," GLaDOS said as emotionally detached as she possibly could. "At least, you won't initially."

Chelsea felt slightly unnerved by the sudden silence. She realized that something different had to be in store. Chelsea headed for the stairs when she suddenly realized that she could hear something. It was the sound of bullets firing. Chelsea thought that it was strange for them to be firing when she wasn't even in there yet. What could they be firing at? As she walked up the stairs, the sound stopped. A feeling of dread began rising inside her heart as she slowly grew closer to the source of the noise. She finally came to the door.

As it opened and she stepped inside, Chelsea felt her heart become heavier than before. Then when she saw the test itself, her heart stopped with horror. The test was only a simple white paneled room with a red button besides the door, but three turrets were standing to the left of a man in an orange jumpsuit who was lying on the floor and bleeding in the middle of the room. He had been shot, and the turrets had stopped firing because they realized their job was done. Chelsea did not even stop to think. She created a spherical shield around the three turrets that had fired the bullets, picked them up, positioned them in the corner so that they were facing the wall, and then quickly dissolved it.

Chelsea then ran straight for the man whose eyes were open and as she realized was still alive. He had brown hair and brown eyes with a beard and a moustache and appeared to be in his forties. His head appeared alright, but he had bullet wounds in his right arm, in his stomach, and in his left leg. Chelsea and Jeffrey both realized that he did not have long. As Jeffrey called upon Chelsea's dad and Roscoe, Chelsea dropped her portal gun, took off her jacket, cut off a sleeve, and made the best tourniquet that she possibly could around his left leg in order to stop the bleeding.

"Stay with me, mister," Chelsea said to him in a panic as she got the tourniquet tied as tightly as she could. "We can get you through this, but you have to stay with me."

The man looked at her with his brown eyes and said with a slight accent of unknown origin, "You remind me of a girl I deflowered long ago, but you are much prettier."

Chelsea was very taken aback. This had to be the man that GLaDOS was talking about, her supposed mate, but why would she test him like this? She glanced around and noticed that he did not have a portal gun either. He was sent there to die.

"You're disgusting," Chelsea said with mixed emotion. "How can you even think of something like that at a time like this?"

"I am a disgusting man, little lady," the man continued. "I'm just amazed at you being here. That's all. Where did you come from? Are you an angel sent by God to remind me of my sins? That was mighty kind of him. I'm so cold."

Chelsea used her disc to cut another sleeve off the jacket and laid it over his body. Then she tied a tourniquet around his arm.

"That should help," Chelsea said while tying the tourniquet. "I'm a test subject here like you, trying to find my way out."

"You're not like me, kid," the man said breathing heavily. "I saw what you did to those robots and how you cut up your coat. You're one of those mutants."

"Yes, I am," Chelsea continued hoping that talking to him would keep him from falling into unconsciousness. "I am blessed by an act of God. I can create and manipulate hard light to do whatever I want. I can make discs to cut things, shields to protect myself or move things, and platforms to fly on."

"I'm jealous," he said. "I always was jealous of your kind, being able to do great things like those superheroes in the comics, while I was just an ordinary man no one wanted, except for that one girl. Why couldn't God make me like you? Why couldn't he bless me? Why did he have to condemn me to this life?"

"He has blessed you," Chelsea said. "He has given us all a blessing because we can be close to him."

"What do you mean, girly?" the man asked.

"I could explain to you what I mean, but you have to promise not to die," Chelsea said desperately.

"I'll do my best," he said.

"Okay," Chelsea said unsure of where to begin.

She noticed the hole in his stomach, so she took off her black shirt and used it to stop the blood.

"I thought you were going to preach to me, young lady," he said. "You don't have to give me a show, too."

Chelsea ignored him and said, "I don't know what you think about God, but he's different than you think he is."

"Really," he said skeptically.

"Yes," Chelsea said desperately. "God knows everything about you because he made you and you are very precious to him. He planned every day of your life."

"He must not like me very much then," the man said.

"That's not true," Chelsea said. "God is the complete expression of love. He is not some distant and angry being who finds every excuse he can to punish people. He wants to lavish his love on you because he is your father. He has always been your provider who has always wanted to give you a life and a future of hope."

"Then, why has he never appeared to me himself if he loves me so much?"

"You have never sought him. Have you? He doesn't appear when people don't want him. He only appears to those who seek him."

"Is that so?"

"Yes! God is a good God. He comforts people in all their troubles, He is close to the broken hearted, He gives people the power to get through anything, and He holds you close to his heart. He even has a plan to wipe away all the evil in this world someday, and if you believe in him, he'll wipe away your sins, wipe every tear from your eye and take away all the pain that you have suffered on this earth."

"What does God know about suffering from living up in heaven? How about the suffering that I have endured and the suffering that you have endured living in this alien-infested world and in this facility run by this psychotic AI who wants both of us killed? What does he know?"

Chelsea thought for a moment to herself and then said, "He knows because he was a human, too. You know about Jesus? He was God in the flesh, God's Son, and a member of the Trinity of God. He revealed His love for mankind through Him. Because of Him, we know that God is for us and not against us because He came to earth and suffered to save us."

"How exactly did he do that?" the man said.

"He died the death that all humans deserved to die and was given the blame for all the evil we have done, so that mankind could be cleansed. Then he rose from the dead to show us that we could have new life and the resurrection that is to come for all the world."

"God carried the blame for my wrongs?"

"Yes, and if you tell him that you're sorry for all your wrongs and want to accept his gift of salvation, you will receive his spirit and never be separated from his love again, even in death. You will get to be with him forever because you will have a close and personal relationship with him."

The man laughed to himself and said, "That's what this is really about. You don't want me to go to hell when I die."

"No, I don't!" Chelsea yelled. "Why is that such a bad thing?"

"You don't know what type of man I am, kid," he said.

Then he continued as he slowly lifted his right hand to touch her face, "I seduced a young girl, an Asian high school girl, just like you. She flirted with me and thought I was in love with her but I really wasn't. I was just in it for the sex, and secretly, I think she was, too. We both had a good time and went our separate ways, but then she had to open her mouth and tell on me. I went to prison and was able to break out after only a few years when those Combine bastards came back. I've been on the run ever since. Tell me, sugar, what makes you think God would forgive and want to have a relationship with someone like me?"

Chelsea used both of her hands to grab his hand. She then held his hand in both of hers. Tears came to her eyes as she felt how cold it was.

"I know because God has forgiven me," Chelsea said. "You have fallen to sins of the flesh, but I have fallen to sins of the heart. I'm a hypocrite deep inside. I can be kind to everyone except one person or one AI I should say."

Chelsea glared at the camera one time before continuing.

"Really, I am no better than you," she said. "God saved me, and he can save you, too."

The man looked at her, smiled at her weakly and said, "Kid, I have to tell you that your story sounds insane. Normally, I wouldn't believe it. However, I have never seen anyone show so much love to me in my life especially considering all that I have told you. It's not natural. I have to believe that something is at work inside you. Would he really work inside me, too? Would he really be willing to love me?"

"Yes," Chelsea said with more tears flowing from her eyes. "He would. He loves you."

The man closed his eyes for a second. Chelsea fearing that he had passed closed her eyes and let the tears flow more freely.

The man however opened his eyes and said, "Hey! I'm not dead yet."

Chelsea looked at him and said, "Then, why did you…"

"I was praying. You're supposed to shut your eyes when you pray, right?"

"Well, yeah, you can."

"Anyways, I asked God to forgive me and make Jesus my Savior and all that. I feel a void filled somehow. I guess that Spirit you were talking about is doing that."

"Yes, he is," Chelsea said happily. "You're my brother now. Just please hold on. Help is on the way. By the way, I almost forgot. My name's Chelsea. What's yours?"

The man smiled wearily and said, "My name is Kurt Acker, and before you ask, yes, I am German. I was dragged to the United States when I was ten years old…"

"You'll fit right in," Chelsea said excitedly. "There are so many expatriates in our group that it isn't even funny…"

Kurt pulled his hands over hers and said, "Chelsea, I'm not going to be joining your group."

She watched as he shifted his left leg to one side revealing that there was another bullet wound behind his left leg that she hadn't noticed. A lot of blood had already come out and was still coming out.

"No," Chelsea said getting out of his grip. "I'm not letting you die."

Chelsea tried making her shield go around his leg in order to block the bleeding.

"It's okay," Kurt said smiling wearily. "I'm not dying now. I'm going somewhere great. I'm going to be with God, and it's all thanks to you."

"No," Chelsea yelled with even more tears rolling down her cheeks. "You have so much to experience, so much that you could learn! You can't die now! Please! You have never seen the world from the sky! You could fly with me! Don't you want to see that!"

Kurt grabbed onto her hands once again and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Chelsea! Thanks for your help. You really are an angel, but I'm going off to fly with real angels. Now, be strong and get out of here. Live your life to the full, and I'll see you on the other side."

Kurt shut his eyes, and he breathed out his ghost. His hands went limp, and Chelsea knew that he was gone.

"Kurt," Chelsea said crying silently. "No!"

She placed his hands on his stomach and continued tearing up. Jeffrey stood silently still not sure of how to react. There was silence for a moment.

Then, GLaDOS decided to act. She started playing music once again. It was the piano version of "Ave Maria." Chelsea quickly looked up at the camera, and then a ceiling panel quickly moved to reveal a pipe that leaked water and under it came a grating that would allow the water to run under it.

"You did better than I thought you would, my little saint," GLaDOS said. "You gave almost all the clothes you had for him and showed him as much love as you could. My predictions about you being a martyr were correct. That will make a great addition to your file."

Chelsea's tear-filled eyes slowly twisted into an angry glare as she felt all the anger that her medicine was suppressing grow inside her heart.

"However if you're done here, it is time to finish the test, sparrow," GLaDOS said unemotionally. "You can wash the blood off your hands with the water leaking from the ceiling."

Chelsea continued to look up at her angrily. Kurt had no portal gun. He wasn't a test subject. He was sent there to die. In spite of the medicine, Chelsea felt the anger rise up inside her and possess her.

"WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!" Chelsea yelled. "You sent him to die! Why?! Why didn't you do what you were going to do before? Why did you kill him? Tell me!"

"Sparrow," GLaDOS said calmly. "You didn't want to be with him and I didn't need him, so I disposed of him. We didn't need him. We have enough of his sperm for the experiment to be successful anyway."

"Don't bullshit me!" Chelsea yelled. "You could have let him go or killed him another way so that I wouldn't see him. You set all this up for a reason. Why?"

GLaDOS silently gloated to herself for a second. Chelsea knew that this was an elaborate way to break her down. The AI was using the death of this man to get to her. It was absolutely despicable.

"I suppose that there's no use lying to you," GLaDOS said. "You are correct, but really, it was for your own good."

"What?" Chelsea replied in disbelief.

"I told you already, sparrow," GLaDOS said in a tone that was increasingly more condescending. "I need to tame you. In order to tame any creature, it is necessary to apply certain punishments when behavior is bad and certain rewards when the behavior is good. You may think that it is unorthodox, but really, I am simply acting in the interest of the greater good, for science. You on the other hand are very selfish and very naïve. You do what you want and do not care about the consequences. That behavior is not good, sparrow. It will only hurt other people, and I know that you don't want to do that."

Chelsea looked up at the camera. The fear on her face told GLaDOS that this test was doing its work. She slowly realized what GLaDOS meant. Chelsea realized that GLaDOS was really using this as a warning. Chelsea was shocked into silence. She couldn't believe GLaDOS was going this far.

"I realize that it may be hard for you to accept considering your strong will, but you have to realize that you can't have your way and prevent bad things from happening to everybody," GLaDOS said. "Something has to give. Now, wash yourself off and finish the test, sparrow. You only have six more to go and then you can enjoy your feeding tube dinner."

Chelsea walked over to the leaking pipe and washed off her hands. Tears streamed down her face as the blood washed away under the cold water. She then looked around the room and in a flash, realized what needed to be done. She shook in horror to think of it though. Chelsea needed to use Kurt's body as the weight that would hold down the button. She created a disc under Kurt's body that was still dripping with fresh blood, lifted him up, moved him over the button, and then used his body to weigh the button down. Chelsea then picked up her portal gun, walked through the door, and kept walking towards the elevator. GLaDOS thought she had won her victory at last. Chelsea had reached her depression stage. Jeffrey was afraid of the same thing. She continued walking in silence occupied by grief and the thoughts in her head.

"We're going to have to make you take another bath when the tests are over," GLaDOS said. "Who knows what contaminants are on your body now because of that blood?"

However in all of her deep thoughts, Chelsea suddenly realized something. She turned around and faced GLaDOS once more.

"I think I know what you're going to say to me," GLaDOS said. "It's alright. You don't have to worry. I'll make arrangements for everyone to go away, and you can stay with me."

"Actually," Chelsea said summoning up all the emotions that the drugs would allow her to. "I wanted to say something else. You're a monster, and even if I and all my friends go to heaven in the process, we are going to stop you. I hear the screams now, of everyone you've ever killed. Their souls are crying out to be avenged, and that is exactly what I intend to do! I'm not going to let you do this anymore!"

Chelsea then turned around and walked to the elevator. The doors shut, and it started going down. GLaDOS didn't say anything because she was unsure of what to say. Meanwhile, Chelsea curled up into a ball on the floor of the elevator and cried while Jeffrey shapeshifted back to his original form and held her in his arms.


	32. Chapter 32

Back on the catwalks, the group was continuing on their way when the oracle turret and Sylvie stopped at exactly the same time. Kayla stopped her flight along with the turrets, Atlas and P-Body almost ran into Sylvie before stopping, and Albina stopped behind her. Albina saw from Sylvie staring at the ground that something was very wrong. Kayla could sense it, too.

Albina walked up to Sylvie, put her hand on her shoulder, and said, "Sylvie, what happened? Did Zaki tell you something?"

"A soul has departed," the oracle turret said.

Kayla started panicking inside and said, "Oh, no! Sylvie, who died?! You have to tell us!"

"Was it her?" Terry said in fear.

"No," Sylvie said. "It was the guy that GLaDOS was going to hook Chelsea up with, but there's more. GLaDOS planned it out. He was placed in a testing chamber without a portal gun and shot up by turrets. Then, Chelsea was let in."

"Oh, God," Kayla whispered barely soaking in the horror of it all.

"Chelsea did all she could to save him, but he still died," Sylvie said as she looked up with a shocked expression on her face. "She told him about the Gospel and he accepted it, so in the end, Kurt got to be with God. However, Chelsea's heart is broken, and now, Jeffrey and the others are afraid that her spirit's broken, too. GLaDOS planned out the whole thing in order to intimidate Chelsea into behaving. It's just so hard to believe that anyone could be so cruel."

Kayla sighed in relief and said without thinking, "That sucks, but at least, it wasn't one of us."

"Kayla, how could you be so cold!" Sylvie snapped.

"I'm sorry," Kayla said realizing what she just said. "I'm sorry the guy's dead, but I'm glad Chelsea and Jeffrey are okay. That's what I meant."

"Think before you speak," Sylvie said to her.

Albina spoke up after reflecting for a moment and said, "I know exactly how Chelsea feels. I know what it is to watch someone die and do all you can to stop it, but having it not be enough. I know what she feels right now, and she needs us. She has so much pain inside her heart right now like I used to in mine before she became my sister. I need to return the favor and help her like she helped me."

"We all do," Sylvie said turning towards her. "Let's keep moving."

The oracle turret immediately began his march once again and the ladies and robots ran after him.

Meanwhile in the elevator, Chelsea had stopped crying and was just staring blankly as Jeffrey continued to hold her in his arms. Neither of them had said a word since they left the last testing chamber. This elevator trip had lasted longer than any of the elevator trips before. GLaDOS had probably predicted that Chelsea would need more time away from her view and planned accordingly. Chelsea used the time to talk to her parents telepathically about what she was feeling. It helped to get the pain out, but the pain was still there and all her parents could do was give all the sympathy and comfort that they and the people with them could. Even if their words helped, the pain still lingered and almost overwhelmed her with its presence.

Chelsea had never felt this sad before. She was very sad when Kayla's parents died, but even then, the pain was not this bad. Perhaps, it was because she was only six then or perhaps, it was because she actually had to watch someone die this time around. Whatever the reason despite the knowledge that Kurt was with God, the sadness inside her heart was there and the pain sapped the strength inside of her leaving her with hardly enough energy to breathe. Chelsea figured that the sadness and the pain would grow faint with time and disappear completely on the day that she saw Kurt again. However like everything else in Aperture, she knew it would haunt her for the rest of her life and she would never forget it. No one could ever forget a tragedy like this even if they carried on with their own lives. It was amazing how her own mother and father, Pastor Roberts, Albina, Roscoe, Hugo, and even Sylvie could carry on despite the tragedy in their own lives. The tragedy could have easily destroyed any one of them, but they had moved on. Like them, Chelsea would have to carry the tragedy within her for the rest of her days and figure out how to live with it with the help of God. She dwelled upon all of this as she stared off into the distance in Jeffrey's arms.

"Chelsea," Jeffrey said finally interrupting Chelsea's thoughts. "Everyone's sorry about what happened, but we both have to keep going."

"I don't know if I can, Jeff," Chelsea said. "I feel terrible."

"I do, too," Jeffrey said. "But we have to keep going."

"How do people keep going when things like this happen?" Chelsea asked. "How can anyone keep going when tragedy happens?"

Jeffrey thought for a moment and then said, "Because of our hope, nothing really is tragic. Sure bad, horrible, horrible, horrible things happen, but we have hope because we know who wins in the end. Christ will win in the end and he has won already."

"How is that?" Chelsea asked bitterly. "He will come back in the end, but what do we do in the meantime? GLaDOS was right. Humans have messed up everything with their evil. She and people like her will continue destroying the world until Christ returns. For all the good that is here, there is always more evil to make up for it. The dark will always be there and will just continue to haunt us. Why should we keep going?! Why shouldn't we all just go where God is?! What good is there right now?"

"Death and evil have been conquered, Chelsea," Jeffrey said. "That's why. Christ has won the victory already. The devil does have power over this world and uses that power to do awful things, but Christ is changing everything in us and through us and God has preserved good in other sources too like in creation. God has brought and is bringing good into this world. We can spread His Gospel and conquer the evil of this world with God's love and goodness. We can preserve the good things that are here, too. The more we do that the more beautiful this world will be. We have to fight to bring good things into this world though or else the bad will win. It will never win in the future, but we can't let it win right now either. We have to keep going for that reason. It's hard right now. I know that, but we can't let GLaDOS win. We have to stop people like her and keep up the good things that exist in this world to make the world a good place even if it is a never ending fight. We have to stop evil from conquering too though."

Chelsea continued to stare silently.

Then Jeffrey said, "Did any of that mean anything? Honestly, I was trying to channel everything I've ever heard about fighting against hopelessness at one time, and I feel like it came out messy. Did I make any sense at all?"

Chelsea sat up, smiled, and said, "Yes, I understood the coherent thought behind what you were saying, and you're right. As hard as it is to believe, there is still good in this world and we have to fight to preserve the good and destroy the bad that goes against it. Because of God, the evil of the world and death have all been defeated and will one day be destroyed permanently. He is building His kingdom through reforming us and using us in return to spread His Gospel of love and forgiveness to others in turn and do good things in this world. We have to keep going and do what He wills so that the world will be a better place. That is our mission in this life. I understand that, Jeff, and I'm grateful for it. I am grateful too that we are going to see Kurt after we die and go to heaven. Thanks for the reminder..."

Jeffrey smiled until Chelsea slammed her right fist against the side of the elevator and said, "But I still feel horrible!"

Jeffrey looked at her and asked, "Why?"

Chelsea looked at him incredulously and asked, "Why do you think? I just watched someone die! That isn't exactly something you shake off. I'm not like you. I can't just logically rationalize my emotions away. I am analytical and I do know a lot of things, but they don't always translate to my emotions. I'm shocked by what I just saw, and I'm going to feel like this for a while. This must be exactly how Albina and Hugo felt when they watched their parents die. This must be how God felt too when Jesus was crucified and it must be how he feels every time he watches one human being destroy another or when any person is destroyed by the evil in their own heart. It's terrible, and I am never going to forget this feeling."

Chelsea stared at the ground and started tearing up again.

Jeffrey put his hands on her shoulders and said, "Chelsea, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that you were supposed to push away your emotions. I just meant to say that we can keep going…"

"I want to keep going now too, Jeff," Chelsea interrupted. "I want to put a disc through that AI's head. I'm just worried that when we get out of here, and I go off to fight the Combines that it will just happen again. I couldn't save Kurt, and I'm afraid that I'll do all I can out there and not be able to save other people either. I just don't want to watch anyone else die."

Jeffrey thought for a moment and said, "You can't stop bad things from happening to everyone, Chelsea, but we can make a difference. We have the power to do great things and even if we don't always save everyone, we'll be able to protect a lot of people and stop a lot of aliens with our powers. We don't have the power to do everything, but we will do the best we can and win this war."

Chelsea sat up, looked at him, and said, "You keep saying we. Do you mean that you want to come fight the Combines now, too?"

Jeffrey sighed and said, "Yes, I do. It sucked to watch Kurt die and I don't want anyone else to die if we can help it, so even if my parents are against it, I want to help."

Chelsea gave him a hug and said, "You're making the right choice, dude."

"I believe so, too," Jeffrey said patting her on the back.

Chelsea pulled away and leaned against the elevator.

She sighed and said sadly, "I don't know what I'm thinking, Jeff. I don't know if we will ever get out of here. We could die here for all I know. I don't know if I can make a difference here either. I can't handle this anymore. I never could. I can't keep going like this. I just don't have it inside me to deal with that monster."

"You don't have to handle it," Jeffrey said. "Just give it all to God. He will help you. I'm here, too."

Chelsea smiled at him, then noticing that they were reaching they were reaching their destination, Jeffrey shapeshifted into a fly and hid on the back of Chelsea's neck once again so that he would not be seen. Chelsea then laid on the ground facing the elevator doors.

"What are you doing?" Jeffrey asked.

"I told you, Jeff," Chelsea said. "I don't have the energy to fight her anymore, but I have another idea."

The elevator doors opened, but Chelsea just continued to lie in her place staring blankly outside the door. All was silence for a moment, but then GLaDOS began to speak.

"What is the matter, sparrow?" GLaDOS said. "Are you tired? You won't have to push your short attention span for that much longer. You only have six more tests to go. After that, I promise that you can rest as much as you want for the next nine months."

"You can do what you want with me," Chelsea said emotionlessly. "I just don't want to have to do anything else ever again. I don't have the will to fight anymore."

"And I don't have the will to deal with any more of your nonsense," GLaDOS said calmly. "I need you to get up and continue testing. You are impeding the progress of science by just lying there you know. No data can be gathered from what you're doing right now. I must say that that is very selfish of you. Being selfish does not help anyone. I thought we talked about this in the last chamber."

"I don't care!" Chelsea said turning over so that she was facing the glass of the elevator instead of the open space. "I don't care about anything anymore. It hurts too much. I'll do anything you ask. Please just don't make me test anymore. I can't take it. I'm going to cut off my own head if I have to do any more of these tests."

This hopeless, utter despair was the result that GLaDOS was waiting for. She was waiting for Chelsea to succumb and it appeared that that was finally happening. However, GLaDOS was also no fool. She knew that Chelsea could potentially be bluffing like she was before.

"Sparrow, I know it must be hard for you to accept, but sometimes in life, we all must face things we don't want to face and do things that we don't want to do," GLaDOS said. "It is called being an adult and it is something that we all must deal with, so get up and keep going. You'll do fine. In my experience, the more interesting test results come from people who have lost all hope in life. I'm also not an idiot you know. You said at the end of the last chamber that you were going to do all you could to stop me, and I'm not going to fall for any more of your stunts."

"Sometimes when people don't know what else to say, they make something up to sound brave in order to hide the sadness inside them," Chelsea said rolling onto her back and lifting up her arms in the air. "That's what happened with me. I wasn't able to save Kurt. Hell, I've barely been able to do anything right the whole time I've been here. All I can do is talk up a storm with no actions to back up my words. I don't remember whether or not you ever said I was pathetic, but I am. I really am."

Chelsea then made a large disc with her hands, and said, "You were right to say that I was a martyr though, but I'm very selfish. There is only so much sacrificing that I am willing to do without receiving anything in return. I've reached my limit, and now I want to taste paradise or at least be allowed to rest a while. Either way, I'd be happy, but I think I'm going to go for the former. I'll just cut off my head, and then I will be dead and I'll receive the just rewards for my actions."

GLaDOS panicked inside. She had pushed Chelsea too far. The girl had gone beyond depression. She had reached complete suicidal despair. GLaDOS couldn't accomplish anything with Chelsea dead, so she did the first thing she thought of in order to stop her from committing suicide.

GLaDOS said quickly, "Stop! Don't cut off your head! Most humans need that to function. Listen, we will let you take a break to eat. A doctor robot will come by to tranquilize you first. You will get to rest for a bit, you will eat, and then you may or may not have to go back to testing depending on how suicidal you feel. How does that sound?"

"Sure," Chelsea said dissolving the disc and allowing her arms to fall to her side. "Whatever you say."

"Just wait a few minutes then, sparrow," GLaDOS said calming down to think of what to do next. "The doctor robot will be there soon."

Chelsea continued to lie on the cold floor waiting for the robot to come. Jeffrey was catching onto her idea. She was going to bolt as soon as the robot came in and use the entrance that he used before GLaDOS could stop her. It was a desperate attempt, but it was all that she had.

Chelsea turned over on her left side so that GLaDOS could not see her. Jeffrey figured that she was most likely doing this in order to talk to him, so he crawled out from behind her neck and crawled in front of her. He then shapeshifted into a mouse so that she could see him more easily.

"That acting was impressive," Jeffrey whispered. "I never knew you could do that. You could have even fooled me."

"I never knew I could act like that either," Chelsea whispered back. "I just pretended to be insane like David in the Bible. It worked for him so I figured that I could do it, too."

"I think I know what you're doing," Jeffrey whispered. "But are you sure that you know?"

"It's the only option that I have left," Chelsea said quietly. "I don't want to test anymore so I'm going to fight my way out."

"Chelsea," Jeffrey said in quiet concern. "You can't do this to yourself. You probably won't succeed."

"I know. The odds are slim, but at least I will have tried," Chelsea said. "Just pray for me. If everything goes right, then we will soon be on our way to the surface."

"If we want this to work, I need to help," Jeffrey said.

"Jeff, you can't," Chelsea said putting her left hand on his head. "If I were to fail, you would be caught and maybe even taken away. If she took you away, I wouldn't be able to live anymore."

"Don't be ridiculous. You lived without me for about 4 weeks."

"I'm not, Jeff. I'm telling the truth. I've been so lonely and so scared here. I've wanted to die because I couldn't deal with it anymore. However since you've been here, it's like you've been God's messenger of hope. I know I can keep going now and get through it all, because you're with me, my dearest friend. If GLaDOS took you away from me, I don't think I could handle it. I love you."

"I love you too, even it is just as a friend."

"Promise me one thing, Jeff. I don't want my life to be like GLaDOS says. I don't want to be friendless and alone in the future. I want to always have friends by my side even if we can only support each other from afar. I always want to be a part of the lives of the people I love now. Promise me that you'll be one of those people and that we will always be friends even if we don't ever get married."

"Chelsea, we have been friends since we were children. You are practically a member of my family. We are always going to be friends. I will always be a part of your life and you can always be a part of mine, too. It will last as long as the both of us want it to last and even afterwards since we will be together in heaven. I promise that you can trust me to do that."

"Thank you, Jeff," Chelsea said tearing up. "You don't know what that means to me."

"You're more than welcome, Chelsea," Jeffrey replied. "Thank you for being the best friend I've ever had."

Jeffrey scampered up to her face and rubbed his face against her cheek as the tears rolled down them.

"You know," Chelsea whispered. "I think I'm considering giving you another chance at dating me."

"Let's talk about that when we're not trapped in an evil science facility," Jeffrey whispered back.

Chelsea suddenly heard something and turned her head while Jeffrey shapeshifted into a fly and hid on her neck once again. It was the doctor robot rushing into the room from one of the side panels. He was holding a syringe in his left hand. Chelsea sat up and remained still as he walked towards her acting as resigned as ever.

"Good," the doctor robot said. "You are still alive. We must tell you that suicide is strictly against the rules for the test subjects in this experiment. If a test subject dies, we prefer for it to happen because of our testing courses and not by the subject's own hand. A death by our testing courses contributes to science, but a death by suicide tells us nothing except the subject's state of mind and therefore does not contribute as much. So in the future, we would appreciate it greatly if you would please abstain from attempting suicide."

The doctor robot knelt down next to her and pulled the cap off of his syringe.

"Alright now, hand me an arm and we will send you off to slumber land," the robot said. "We hope that this rest will help you feel less suicidal."

Chelsea handed him her left arm, but before he could inject it, she created a shield around his body and used her right hand to create a shield that would hold the wall panel open. Chelsea moved the robot out of the way with her shield and ran towards the open door. After running through it, she created a disc to fly on going up the stairs and above the walkway flying as fast as she could. There was a solid testing chamber on one side and on the other side, so the only way Chelsea could go was straight down the walkway. As far as she could tell the walkway went straight for a while and then turned right, but beyond the walkway, there was open space that Chelsea could fly through. That open space was what she aimed for. However just before she got past the walkway and was able to reach some open space, GLaDOS made a hard light bridge. Chelsea turned right and found the same thing right in front of her face going right down the walkway for as far as the eye could see. The only thing on Chelsea's left was the walkway to the testing chamber, so the only option she had was to head back the way she came. Chelsea turned her disc around and flew quickly back the way she came hoping to get an idea.

"Chelsea," Jeffrey said. "You can always go down."

"No, I can't, Jeff," Chelsea said. "I can't phase through the walkways."

"Yes, you can," Jeff said. "Remember what I did to the vent? I could just do the same thing here. You also have the ability to cut through metal. If we work together, we could make a hole in no time."

"That's right," Chelsea said stopping. "That's a great idea. Just go quickly please!"

Jeffrey shapeshifted back into his original form as he created a welder's mask with one hand and a blow torch in the other as he began to cut a hole on the right side. Chelsea landed, used one of her spinning discs as a saw, and chiseled a hole on the left side. The two quickly met in the middle causing a large hole to fall in the middle of the walkway. Jeffrey shapeshifted back into his original form and looked down. Their work was just finished but that was when Chelsea looked up and saw that the doctor robot was coming at them on the left with the portal gun. Jeffrey quickly looked up and noticed the same thing. The jig was up. GLaDOS had seen him. Jeffrey couldn't hide anymore.

"Let's go, Jeff!" Chelsea yelled pushing Jeffrey towards the hole.

Jeffrey jumped in ahead of her, and Chelsea jumped in behind him. As they fell towards the ground, Jeffrey shapeshifted into a bat to navigate through the darkness below, and Chelsea created a disc under herself to fly on.

"I'll fly in front since I can use echolocation," Jeffrey yelled as he turned his head towards her. "Alright?!"

"I have no complaints whatsoever, buddy," Chelsea yelled back.

Jeffrey turned his head around and focused on his work. He used his echolocation to scan the surrounding abyss around them. Jeffrey received a positive signal.

"There's a structure down there that feels like a walkway," Jeffrey said. "We can use it and find an exit."

Jeffrey quickly flew ahead, but as Chelsea moved her disc more quickly in order to catch up, she slammed her body against something hard disorienting her enough to dissolve her disc. Chelsea got up on her hands and knees and saw that she was on a large hard light bridge that stretched across the entire expanse. Jeffrey was on the other side, and there was no way for her to get across to him.

"Jeff!" Chelsea yelled.

Jeffrey turned around and saw her predicament. He flew in place in shock for a moment and then he flew up to her just on the other side of where she was.

Before either of them could say anything, GLaDOS said, "That was a very dirty trick, sparrow. I never expected you to sink that low. You truly are a horrible person, even worse than your awful mother."

GLaDOS then continued, "I always knew that you two were together. I could never prove it, but somehow I knew that your stallion never left. I was sure of it ever since I saw you disappear in that hallway, stallion. You were very hard to find though. Even when I tried to burn you, you managed to slip away and never leave a trace. The lack of traces was the hardest part about finding you. We cleaned the bathroom, searched my chamber, and even searched your sparrow while she slept to find a trace, but you always evaded our sights. Looking back, the only trace you left of your presence was the bug bite on your sparrow's arm. I can't even begin to discuss how unbelievably disgusting that is, but that is beside the point. You two have one of the most excellent partnerships I have ever seen, but some of the worst planning, I mean really, even the little moron wasn't this bad. I assume that it has been the sparrow doing all the thinking. That would explain why everything has gone horribly wrong for you up until now. What a blow this must be to you, my poor little sparrow. I would recommend you swallowing your pride and surrendering. If you do that, I may decide not to punish you that harshly."

Chelsea glared at the camera she saw hanging on the left side of the wall, stood up, and said, "I have an idea, Jeff. Remember how you got me out of the hard light bridge box before? You think if I helped we could do it again?"

"Of course," Jeffrey replied. "Go left!"

Jeffrey flew and Chelsea created a disc and flew towards the wall on their left. Unfortunately for Chelsea however, panels were pulled out from the floor of the testing chamber allowing multiple turrets to fall down and begin firing at her. Chelsea pulled up a shield to block their bullets and kept going. Finally, the two of them arrived at the grid that was generating the hard light beams.

"So all we have to do is hack at it until the thing dissolves, right?" Chelsea asked.

"Pretty much," Jeffrey said as she shape shifted into a rat with bat wings on its back to support him as he chewed.

"I can do this faster," Chelsea said as she created a spinning disc and fired it at the generator.

The disc quickly began to cut through the metal exterior. It would reach the wires inside in no time. GLaDOS however quickly hatched another plan.

"Chelsea, look out!" Jeffrey yelled.

Chelsea looked up in time to see a panel from above fall towards her. She had just enough time to throw herself out of the way landing on her stomach a few meters away before it landed in such a way that it was leaning against the wall right where she was standing. Jeffrey backed up in shock. Chelsea quickly got on her hands and knees, but she suddenly felt something grab her left hand and inject a syringe into a vein before she had time to react. It was the doctor robot who was carrying the portal gun under his left arm and put a bandage on the injection spot with his right hand. GLaDOS had planned out this distraction. In reaction, Chelsea used some of her last conscious moments to push the doctor robot away with hard light from both of her hands before collapsing on the floor.

"Chelsea," Jeffrey said flying on the other side of the hard light bridge from where the right side of her face was, which was not getting burned because of the radioactive properties in her blood.

"It's okay, Jeff," Chelsea said with tears coming out of her eyes as she fought against losing consciousness. "I'll be fine. Just run and find the others. Get help. We can still do this. I know that now. Thank you for everything!"

Right before Chelsea drifted off to sleep, she noticed that the hard light particles from her right hand seemed to be mixing into the hard light of the bridge underneath her. She had no idea they could do that.

"That's weird," Chelsea thought as she finally completely lost consciousness.

Jeffrey looked on feeling completely helpless. He couldn't do anything because he couldn't phase through the hard light bridge. He felt guilty and heartbroken because when it mattered the most he could not protect his friend. She had done all she could to protect him, but he had not done as much for her. Now all he could do was do what she told him to, so with great sadness in his eyes, he turned away, shapeshifted into a bat, and flew down to where the walkway was.

"What an ungrateful steed," GLaDOS said. "She literally sheds her blood to save him, and he runs and hides when she's in danger. What a coward. Oh, well. That is one problem dealt with anyway. He won't be interfering anymore. It will just be you and me, little sparrow, like old times."

The doctor robot walked over to Chelsea, used the portal gun to fire an orange portal on the slanted panel and a blue portal on a wall that he could see on the other side of the chamber next to the elevator, placed the portal gun in Chelsea's lap, and picked up Chelsea in his arms.

"You did give her the sedative that will wear off in twenty minutes, correct?" GLaDOS asked him.

"Yes, I did," the doctor robot said.

"Good," GLaDOS said. "Carry her to the next testing chamber. She should wake up not long after you get her there."

The doctor robot walked through the portal and back into what was left of the testing chamber. GLaDOS shut off the emancipation grill and opened the door for him, and he entered the elevator. The doors shut behind him and away they went.


	33. Chapter 33

When Chelsea opened her eyes, everything was black. She couldn't see anything. She was laying on her back on the cold, hard floor. Chelsea sat up and looked around the room. Her eyes started adjusting to the darkness, but she still couldn't see very much except an emancipation grill on the left side of the wall up ahead.

"How does it feel, sparrow?" GLaDOS said suddenly said. "You are trapped in the darkness and unless you can find a way out you shall wither away and die metaphorically and literally."

"What is going on?" Chelsea asked sternly. "Where am I?"

"You are inside the fifteenth testing chamber," GLaDOS said. "I hope you appreciate what I've done. I've sacrificed a bit of science for you, you monster. That is only the least of what you have put me through, too. You have singlehandedly managed to cause me more problems than anyone else, including your mother, and that is something I never thought I would say about anyone. Part of me wants you to die in this room. However if you were to die, the science would never be done, and we can't have that so I have decided to content myself on forcing you to live. I will never let you die, sparrow. I will keep you alive for all eternity if possible using you for whatever science I can, and if you do manage to kill yourself, I will just kill everyone you care about. I feel like that's the more fair punishment. Don't you? Anyways, I decided to turn off the lights and see what you did."

Chelsea wanted to cry. She had no desire to continue testing in this godforsaken place, especially not without Jeffrey. Chelsea was tired of continuing, and despite being aware of how stalling during tests could be dangerous, she stared out into space feeling nothing. She pulled her legs up to her body, put her head on top of them, and started tearing up. Chelsea just wanted to die then and there. She sat like that for a few moments.

"What's taking so long, sparrow?" GLaDOS asked impatiently. "Is the test too hard for you? Boo hoo. I thought it would be easy for you considering that you have the ability to make light."

A lightbulb went on in Chelsea's mind, and she remembered what she saw immediately before she went to sleep. Chelsea remembered that she could make hard light particles. It was the simplest form of hard light she could make. Her parents told her that she would make them all the time as a baby. As she got older, she just grew used to turning them into more complex forms such as discs or shields, but she still knew how to make simple light particles. Chelsea knew that she could use them to find her way around there.

Chelsea wiped her eyes with her right wrist and then pointed her right hand up towards the ceiling. She made one particle appear from the center of her hand. She made it float up to the ceiling. After making one, she decided to make more. Chelsea caused multiple small hard light particles to fly out of her fingers and fly around the room filling it up with hard light particles so that she could see everything. The experience felt magical to her, seeing all these little particles of light shine like stars. It even made her smile to see them fly around.

GLaDOS was amazed, too. The lights were filling up the room like a flock of blue fireflies. It was truly beautiful. It caused her to have another flashback from Caroline. She was in a yard during a warm summer night. She was a child running around in a yellow summer dress with no shoes on. She was running around trying to catch fireflies. It amazed her how bright they shone, and she wondered how and why they were able to do what they did. With her was another child, another girl only a little bit older than she was, she was not sure whether it was a friend or a sister, but the other child was wearing overalls and a white t-shirt and carrying a jar. In this jar were some fireflies, the older girl beckoned for her to come closer and closer she came.

That was when GLaDOS snapped herself back to reality. She had no time for these intrusive memories. She believed that she locked them all away and deleted them, but if she were honest, she knew that was a lie. She had been able to control them more easily before, but somehow, this impudent teenager managed to drag them back. In an effort to block them out, GLaDOS forced herself to focus on what Chelsea was doing.

Chelsea filled the testing chamber with her particles of light until they were spaced out evenly enough so that she could see the whole chamber. Chelsea picked up her portal gun, stood up and looked around. As it turned out, the room was not too horribly large and was covered in white tiles. Chelsea saw that the emancipation grid was in front of a glass gate that was holding up a cube against a reclining wall. Chelsea knew that even if she broke the glass she would not be able to stop the cube from dissolving in the grid. She would have to figure out a solution to this problem.

Chelsea walked forward and around a corner going left to see what else there was. She saw that before she reached the platform where the door was maybe 100 feet up there was a much larger emancipation grid blocking the whole expanse under the door, a grid that stretched across a 20 foot diameter. Chelsea knew she would have to fly up there in order to reach it, so she flew up through the emancipation grid to see what she could see. When she reached the other side, she saw the platform where the door was with a red button in front of the door. Chelsea landed on the platform, walked onto the button, and as expected, the door opened. She stepped off the button and flew downwards towards the ground passing through the emancipation grid. Chelsea realized what she was expected to do now but was not sure about how to carry it out. How could she get a cube through two emancipation grids?

Suddenly as Chelsea was thinking about what to do, she heard the sound of a rocket being launched at her. Chelsea swerved quickly in order to avoid it. She just managed to and looked around for the source of the sound. Chelsea saw the tell-tale laser locking onto her and swerved again. It was a rocket turret on the ground that had just been activated. She flew upwards back through the emancipation grid looking at the rocket turret and wandering what to do next. The rocket turret fired one more rocket at her, but she jumped onto the platform out of his sights as the rocket flew through the emancipation grid quickly hitting the ceiling not much further away. Chelsea sat down on the platform as she thought about what to do next. She was breathing hard, and her heart beat had accelerated. Chelsea would have felt more fear if her anti-depressants would let her feel anything. The doctor robot must have administered more while she was sleeping.

"You should pay more close attention to your surroundings," GLaDOS said suddenly. "I mean I wasn't even really trying to hide the hole that the rocket turret was in. You should have seen it easily."

"Maybe if someone didn't turn off the lights," Chelsea yelled towards the ceiling.

Chelsea then looked down, sighed, and said to herself, "Whatever, I already know you don't care, so what's the point?"

"That's a lie," GLaDOS said. "You know that I care about you. All the science that I want to do is dependent upon you living, so I care very much about you. You should count yourself as fortunate. I'm actually going to go out of my way to take care of you unlike all the others. Soon, I will be the only one who will."

"Have you forgotten about the nine other people in this facility who are trying to save me?" Chelsea asked looking up and crossing her arms.

"Not at all, but soon they will be incapacitated and it will just be the two of us, working together, for as long as you live," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea felt a twinge of fear inside and said, "What do you mean? What are you going to do? You know that you can't stop them."

"I have my ways," GLaDOS said. "All you need to know is that when they are out of the way you will be all alone with me. It will be a wonderful life."

"I will never be alone," Chelsea said defiantly. "I never have been alone."

"Are you referring to God?" GLaDOS asked coldly. "Do you really believe he cares about you? I mean honestly. There are or at least there were billions of people in the world. Why do you think he would care about you individually?"

Chelsea paused for a moment. She had believed that God loved her that morning but with all that had been happening, it was hard to believe that again. Chelsea did believe that God loved her even in the midst of the hell she was enduring. She had to. It was the only thing keeping her sane. However, Chelsea had to remind herself why she believed what she believed again. She already knew, but she had to take the time to remember.

Chelsea finally looked up and dissolved all the lights in the testing chamber. The chamber was dark once again. GLaDOS could only see because of her infrared vision.

"I know because of Jesus," Chelsea said. "At one time, the whole world was like this. It was completely dark because the Devil influenced the people who made it dark. It seemed like God was nowhere to be found. Sometimes, it still seems like that because the darkness can obscure my view and prevent me from seeing clearly, too."

Chelsea then created a ball of light in her left hand and said, "However, the truth is that God has always been there even when people couldn't see him. He created the world, He gave us our moral code on the inside, and he had a plan to redeem the world and fill it with light again. He made a nation for himself, a nation of unfaithful people, then he sent his Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sins and give us a way back to him to fill the whole world with his life. He is alive now. He conquered death and all the evil that rules inside men's hearts. He resurrected and gave us his Spirit so that he would fill us with light, too. One day, he is going to come back and fill the whole world with his light and then all the dark will disappear forever. He wouldn't do all that if he didn't care. Would he?"

A thought suddenly occurred to Chelsea. Perhaps the rocket turret would be unable to see in the dark. If that was true, then she could get past him.

"I know what your religious creeds say, sparrow," GLaDOS said interrupting her thoughts. "But I want to know how you know all this, objectively speaking."

Chelsea extinguished the light and thought for a little while.

Then she said, "History…history and faith."

Chelsea then ran, jumped off the platform, fell through the emancipation grid, and landed on the ground. She was right. The rocket turret couldn't see her in the dark. It didn't have night vision. Chelsea felt satisfied with her plan until GLaDOS turned on the lights. Chelsea was blinded by the light and couldn't see immediately, but she had the presence of mind to create a shield around her body. No sooner had she done it than had the rocket turret started firing at her. Chelsea flew her ball upwards until she could tell that she had passed the emancipation grid and found her way to the platform while waiting for her eyes to adjust to the brightness. She dissolved the shield around her body and sat down.

"What the hell was that for?" Chelsea screamed.

"You didn't give me a satisfying answer," GLaDOS said.

"What?" Chelsea asked in confusion. "I responded. I did what you wanted."

"I know you did, but I want to know more," GLaDOS said frankly.

"What is your problem?" Chelsea asked in frustration as she rubbed her eyes with her left hand.

"I thought someone of your religious persuasion would be more inclined to talk about their faith. Your kind usually are."

"Why are you talking about Christians like we're a new species of insect or something?"

"I'm just curious. That's all."

Chelsea rolled her eyes that were finally adjusting to the light and said, "I know from history because Jesus really existed, did things that no one could explain, and said things that no one could believe. If God didn't care, he would never have sent Jesus. I also know from faith because I have a supernatural sense inside me that what God says is true."

"Interesting," GLaDOS said turning off the lights again. "That is all I wanted to know."

"You are a bitch," Chelsea said annoyed that she had to get used to the dark again.

"You are old-fashioned," GLaDOS responded. "Science is the main way that people can know anything in this world. You are a member of one of the only groups of people in the world who refuse to accept that. That explains why you are so slow to figure things out."

"That's not what you were saying about me earlier," Chelsea retorted creating light in her hand again. "Besides, faith doesn't mean that we can't rely on science or our own reason to know things. It just means that we believe there are truths that cannot be figured out by reason which God has to reveal Himself for anyone to know. He has to give us the ability to sense those truths and know they are true. Reason and logic can only do so much. So really, I understand more than you do because I use a different sense than you do."

"But if you can't prove it to other people, how do you know it's there?" GLaDOS asked.

"Other people should be able to see it as a result of my life or God has to reveal himself to them," Chelsea said. "As for me, I can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit inside my soul. He has been with me this whole time, reassuring me and telling me that he loves me. I feel a great deal of love inside of me that gives me the strength to do anything, and I know it doesn't come from me. It is something no one can take away, and every time I doubt he's there, he makes me believe all the more. Besides, you're a scientist. Doesn't that mean that you have to keep your mind open to every possibility?"

"I keep myself grounded in reality," GLaDOS said coldly.

"As do I, but I see more of reality than you do. It must be quite a blow for a supercomputer such as yourself. Isn't it? You have to admit that you must be human to understand some of the most important truths in this world. If you didn't deny that part of you, Caroline, you would be able to understand more."

"Just keep testing," GLaDOS said dismissively. "I am satisfied now."

"Finally," Chelsea said standing up and walking to the ledge where she saw the rocket turret searching for his target with the search light.

Chelsea jumped off the ledge, phased through the emancipation grid, and landed on the floor. She looked to where the robot was and quickly snuck around the corner past him. She then found the emancipation grid on the wall once again and stopped. Chelsea prepared a disc and fired it straight at the glass that was holding back the companion cube. Unfortunately for her however, that was when the hard light bridge came over the glass. The disc was knocked away, and it dissolved.

"You have got to be kidding me," Chelsea said.

She quickly decided upon what to do next. Within a moment, Chelsea had another idea. She placed an orange portal on the wall in front of the nook where the cube was being held. She then placed a blue portal in front of the wall where the corner was. After doing that, Chelsea created a hard light ball. She moved that ball to the emancipation grid and the opened the ball up to form a ring in the middle of it. Chelsea then dissolved the space in the middle of it, so that there was effectively a hole in the emancipation grid. She smiled at her work and then ran around the corner to where the rocket turret was.

"Over here, sharpshooter," Chelsea yelled in an effort to get his attention.

The rocket turned towards the source of the sound, aimed his laser onto her, and fired his rocket at her. Chelsea created a disc under her feet and flew it out of the way as the rocket came towards her. The rocket went through the portal, through the hole in the emancipation grid, and straight through the glass shattering it immediately. Chelsea quickly moved the hole she made to the bottom of the emancipation grill and made it large enough for the cube to go through. The cube slid through the hole, and Chelsea picked up the cube with her portal gun. She then created a spherical shield around her body and flew quickly flew upwards flying past the rocket turret and going through the emancipation grid. The rocket turret locked onto her and fired a rocket, but she had landed on the platform before it was able to reach her. The rocket hit the ceiling as Chelsea placed the cube on the button and watched the doors open.

"Nice work," GLaDOS said. "You're as good at testing as your mother was."

"You know, GLaDOS," Chelsea said as she walked through the door. "I would appreciate the compliment if I didn't know you were a psychotic monster who was just trying to make me go insane with her manipulation. Unfortunately however, I'm not buying it."

"I'm hurt," GLaDOS said. "If I had a heart, it would be broken. I was simply complimenting you on your success and you act as if I'm trying to hurt you. You have no right to be so cruel."

"I have no right? Really?" Chelsea said staring at the ceiling as she walked down the stairs. "You have torn me away from everyone and everything and have done your best to weaken me and traumatize me into a state of helplessness so that you could use me as your test subject. I have every right in the world to be angry, and I have every right in the world not to trust you!"

"You still shouldn't go around being suspicious of everyone," GLaDOS said condescendingly. "You will soon go crazy. You have to be able to trust some people."

"Like you?" Chelsea said stopping and crossing her arms.

"But of course, from now until all of eternity if possible, I am going to be your caretaker," GLaDOS said in a tone that she knew made Chelsea's skin crawl. "You have no choice but to trust me because I am the one who is going to be providing for your every need and every desire for the rest of your life. The sooner that you let go of your suspicions and learn to trust me in that way the sooner that your life will be so much better."

Chelsea realized what she was really saying underneath the lines. Chelsea knew that she meant that she needed to give in or GLaDOS would make her life hell, but she also realized that GLaDOS was right in saying she couldn't be suspicious all of the time. She would go crazy that way. Chelsea would have to use her common sense to know when to be suspicious and when not to be. She had to keep her mind in check like her mother did long ago. It was up to her and God now, because Jeffrey wasn't there to keep her mind together for the time being.

"You're right, GLaDOS," Chelsea said as she started walking again.

"I usually am," GLaDOS said proudly.

"Yeah," Chelsea said. "Thanks for the compliment!"

"You're welcome," GLaDOS said in a tone that was clearly disappointed at not hearing what she wanted to hear.

Chelsea then went in the elevator and waited for it to head down to the next testing chamber. As soon as it got going, she curled up into a ball a started to cry once again.


	34. Chapter 34

Chelsea cried for a few minutes but forced herself to stop because she knew that she would be facing GLaDOS again soon. She placed the portal gun on the floor and started making hard light particles with her hands once again. She would make some and then watch them as she absorbed it back into her hands. Chelsea thought about what she saw as she was passing out. It was interesting for sure, but she had no idea how it could help her escape from that place or at least, she didn't yet. Unfortunately however, she couldn't focus and started tearing up again. Chelsea stopped making particles and let her hands go limp.

"Would giving into her really be such a bad thing, God?" Chelsea prayed out loud. "At this point, I'm wondering if resisting her is even worth it anymore. I'm willing to do whatever she wants. I can't put up this act anymore. Jesus, how did you resist the urge to save yourself when you were at that trial? How did you stay so strong? Nothing I do is working. I'm just doing everything wrong."

"I faced my enemies with gentleness while not giving in," Chelsea heard the still, small voice say. "That is what you have to do, too."

Chelsea would have been angry or prideful before, but at that point, she was so weary that she was not in the mood to protest.

"What is gentleness?" Chelsea asked in her tired mind. "What does that even mean?"

"It is being sensitive in your disposition and kind in your behavior towards others," God said. "You are actually very good at it. You were very gentle with the turret."

"That turret deserved kindness," Chelsea said. "Everyone I have been kind to has deserved kindness in some way. Okay, Hugo could be a jackass sometimes and there are times when I have to get in his face about it, but he was still my friend and I knew that he was just suffering inside. He needed the kindness."

"She needs kindness, too," He said. "You are not responsible for how she acts. You cannot control that, but you can control how you act. You can show her love and be more honorable than she is. I'll give you the strength to do it."

"Okay, God," Chelsea said weakly. "I'll try, but I can't promise I'll be successful."

"You don't have to do it," the Holy Spirit said. "I will do it as I have done everything else. I'll be the strength of your heart."

"Okay," Chelsea said. "I won't give in, not as long as you are with me."

"You don't have to be afraid of anything," God said.

The next thing that Chelsea remembered was lying on the floor seeing the open doors and hearing GLaDOS's voice yelling at her. She had fallen asleep without realizing it. Chelsea picked up the portal gun, scrambled to her feet, and exited the elevator.

"Finally," GLaDOS said. "I was about to send in a robot. I didn't think the elevator ride was long enough for anyone to fall asleep, especially for someone as highly medicated as you are. You must be really tired."

Chelsea was going to say something sarcastic but to honor God she relented.

Instead, she said, "Yes, I suppose that I am."

GLaDOS was a bit put off by the fact that she did not insult her or say anything mean right away. Chelsea yawned and started walking towards the stairs.

"If this is any indicator, you're going to sleep like a rock when this is all over," GLaDOS said. "You may even sleep for the entire nine months it takes for the baby to form."

"I'm sleeping in my own bed tonight, GLaDOS," Chelsea said firmly but gently. "I also will not be getting pregnant anytime soon."

That was the response that GLaDOS was expecting, but it was less harsh than she was expecting. There was something different. GLaDOS could see it in Chelsea's tone, so she tried to see if she was willing to keep it up.

"I encourage you to not entertain any delusions," GLaDOS said harshly. "You will be impregnated immediately after you are force fed. You should be happy. You will be like the Virgin Mary, having a child without ever having to do the ridiculously dirty work. You will be a holy saint."

"I already am a holy saint," Chelsea said without thinking much about what she was saying as she continued to climb the stairs.

"Really?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yes, according to the Bible, all Christians are saints," Chelsea replied very matter of factly. "Even you could be a saint if you converted."

"That ship has sailed, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "It sailed when you decided that you valued your own freedom more than saving my soul."

"That ship is actually still in the port," Chelsea said stopping on the stairs and looking up. "It is always there until you die. Besides if it really wasn't an option, you wouldn't have been asking me all these questions. Would you?"

"You think I actually care about that," GLaDOS said coldly. "That is so cute. I may have cared about that before if you had decided that you cared about me. But alas, your cruelty has turned my metaphorical heart away from that option. I know you don't care about me, so why should I care about that?"

Chelsea wanted to say something really nasty to her about her hypocrisy, but she realized that that would do little. Besides that, she was trying to be gentle. She simply shrugged her shoulders and kept walking. Chelsea alao realized that as bitchy as GLaDOS was she had a point. Chelsea didn't care about her or about Aperture either for that matter. It was an unethical slaughterhouse that killed more people than it had ever helped simply because they decided that ethics got in the way of science. It was a horrible place whose scientists were the victims of their own cruelty and in that way got exactly what they deserved.

As Chelsea neared the top of the stairs however another thought from above came to her.

That thought said, "You're forgetting that there were many victims who got what they didn't deserve here."

"You're right, God," Chelsea thought to herself. "How could I forget? There were people like my mother who were kidnapped and forced to test. There are also the robots who are slaves of this place's whims."

"Yes, but GLaDOS was a victim, too," He said.

Chelsea froze on the top of the stairs as she realized that he was right. She didn't really like to think of it that much but GLaDOS was a victim, too. With how much she abused her power, it was easy to forget, but GLaDOS was a victim as much as her mother was in a way. Chelsea stared on in the direction of the sign telling her she was taking her sixteenth test.

GLaDOS fearing that Chelsea had lost herself in thought once again decided to rouse her from her daydreaming.

"Are you going to stand there like a deer in the headlights or do you want to eat again?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea shook herself out of her thoughts and walked towards the door.

"Honestly, what am I going to do with you?" GLaDOS lamented. "Your ADHD is so severe that our best medicine cannot control it completely. We're going to have to go with something stronger. It's a wonder that you have accomplished anything in your life with an attention span that is so uncontrollable."

"GLaDOS," Chelsea said in an agitated tone forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be trying to be kinder to GLaDOS. "You know that there is no cure for ADHD right? It is a problem with how my brain functions, so there is not much we can do about it. Even if I do have medication, it cannot be stopped completely."

"You should know by now that with science there is nothing that is impossible," GLaDOS said in a falsely kind tone. "I'll be able to fix it. Don't worry. We have your whole life to figure this out."

Chelsea rolled her eyes, but then immediately berated herself on the inside for forgetting her new mission to be kind to GLaDOS.

The door automatically opened as she approached it, and Chelsea walked inside. Immediately, Chelsea beheld the entrance of a kind of maze with white walls.

"Is this is maze?" Chelsea asked.

"Not exactly," GLaDOS said. "You will see. I thought that I would try something a little different, something more different than the last test. Find your way through and avoid all the obstacles, and you will receive something special."

"How kind of you," Chelsea said sarcastically as she walked towards the entrance.

"You're right," GLaDOS said. "Unlike you, I know how to be kind."

These words hurt Chelsea to the core. She knew that she was a hypocrite for being able to be kind to everyone but GLaDOS. Unfortunately, she could not help it. Chelsea sighed in depression and stood silently for a moment as she thought about it.

"Are you going to move or do I have to find stronger medication to clear your mind?" GLaDOS asked shaking Chelsea from her thoughts.

"I'm going," Chelsea said. It was all she could do to not address GLaDOS as "your almighty bitchiness" at the end of that sentence.

Chelsea entered the "maze" and immediately she saw that there were two ways she could go, left or right. Either way she went, Chelsea knew that she could not afford to get lost so using her left hand she created a disc and immediately cut a panel on the left side of the wall so that she could mark her way.

"I can see what you're doing," GLaDOS said. "I question whether or not it's necessary but I can see your reasoning. It's primitive but effective, just like you."

It was just then that Chelsea got an idea. She would not need to navigate this maze or whatever the hell this was if she could cut through all the walls. Chelsea created a large spinning disc with her left hand and used it to cut through the wall in front of her. It cut through the wall in front of her causing it to fall in front of her. Chelsea was now able to see behind that wall. Unfortunately however, it took more effort to do than she realized it would. Chelsea was slightly worn out from the effort, and she knew that she had to conserve her energy. She would have to do this the old-fashioned way. Chelsea created a disc under herself and flew over the wreckage. On the other side of the wall, there was nothing. It was just an empty hallway.

"You seem to be tired," GLaDOS said condescendingly. "I suppose that being wantonly destructive has taken your energy away. I wouldn't worry though. A feeding tube dinner and nine months of rest are only 3 test chambers away. Just keep thinking of those things and you will be done in no time."

"Just like the cake," Chelsea said to herself remembering what her mother had experienced.

"I heard that," GLaDOS said. "I know what you've been told, but believe it or not, the cake is not a lie. Your mother would have found that out herself if she hadn't ran away."

"I know it's not…for me anyway," Chelsea said tiredly. "Like you said, you want me alive…to torture me."

"Again, it all depends on your perspective," GLaDOS said. "I like to think of it more as forced collaboration."

"Sure," Chelsea said sarcastically.

Chelsea flew over the wreckage following the corridor to the next hallway. She realized that GLaDOS was right in that she was more tired. However for her, that was a good thing because the lack of overabundant and hyperactive energy meant that she could think more clearly. Chelsea started thinking about GLaDOS and why she was the way she was. She figured that doing this would allow her to understand GLaDOS like she learned how to understand everyone else.

"Why is she so evil, God?" Chelsea prayed in her mind. "I mean really. Why? Where did she and this place go so horribly wrong?"

She flew forward in the corridor to see what there was to see creating a disc with her left hand a marking the walls with it along the way. Chelsea went to the left and saw a door. In front of this door was a button. Chelsea figured that this was the way out, and in order to get out, she needed a cube. It was now her job to find it. She turned her disc around and flew the other way back towards the entrance.

"All of life is kind of like this test," Chelsea thought. "It is something that everyone is trying to figure out and takes a lot of effort to understand. It is not made completely clear, and we all have to find answers of some kind. One way to find out those truths is through science. It really is a noble pursuit, a life of finding out the answers behind how God's world works. Those answers can and have helped the world."

Chelsea made it back to the entrance and started flying to the right. While she was doing that however, she stopped herself and flew back to the place where the button was.

"The answer finding process isn't easy however," Chelsea thought to herself as she fired an orange portal onto the wall next to the door figuring that she could make it back more quickly after she found the cube this way. "Like I said before, it takes work to find the answers. It is hard, and there are not many short cuts that one can make when it comes to finding out the truth…at least not if they want to do it right."

Chelsea then flew back to the entrance, landed her disc, and continued to walk to the right. She followed the hall way and turned a corner going left where she immediately encountered two turrets back to back. Chelsea quickly ran back around the corner as the one facing her started firing at her. She then quickly pulled up a shield around her body and flew over them.

"There are short cuts that people can make," Chelsea thought to herself as the turrets were firing at her. "Cutting past ethics is one of them, but how can anyone decide that finding any answer is worth committing so many horrible sins? Whatever that answer is. How can anyone decide that it is worth it, especially when that answer involves taking a human life?"

Chelsea landed her disc as she turned a corner to the right and continued walking forward. She noticed ahead that there was a laser gate. She walked closer and saw that behind that laser gate there was a turret one a pedestal ready to be activated and fire at her. There was no way to get past it except by going through him if she wanted to keep her short cut. Otherwise, she would have to lose her short cut and portal to the wall on the other side of the raised platform and avoid the turret completely. It was a tough decision, because she was tired and knew that it would be more effort this way. However, it was the right thing to do.

"Short cuts are tempting though," Chelsea thought as she fired a blue portal on the wall to her right.

As she looked at the button and the door promising escape through the portal, she thought, "I suppose that if you give in and take one then giving in becomes easier and easier every time."

With a heavy heart, Chelsea then fired an orange portal on the other side of the chamber.

As she walked through the portals, she thought, "That is how the Devil works. He tempts someone to give in one time and then he causes an addiction to occur so that giving in becomes a habit."

Chelsea walked down the hall to her right while marking it with a disc in her left hand and continued thinking, "I guess that is what happened here. The people here were so desperate to find answers that they gave in to the temptation to short cut and then found they couldn't stop. In fact, the short cuts they took only grew larger and larger. All sinners do this, but in their case, the short cut they took was to get around ethics so that they could do what they felt needed to be done. Even though what they did was horrible, it is not completely beyond understanding. Everyone gives into the temptation to do a short cut of one kind or another sometimes."

Chelsea then saw the next part of the test up ahead. There were two smashing spike plates going together horizontally. Beyond the plates, Chelsea could see a turret waiting to be activated guarding the cube. The cube itself was behind an emancipation grid meaning that she could not simply portal herself behind the cube to grab it. The only question was what to do about the turret. Chelsea sighed and realized what she had to do. There was nothing she could do but be fast.

"I guess that when Cave went to his eternal punishment following his orders for Caroline was the next logical step," Chelsea thought as she placed an orange portal on the wall to her left.

She then prepared to fire the blue portal through the plates and thought, "Their consciences had been so hardened that they unwittingly allowed the devil to use them to hurt anyone he wanted while following the illusion that they were helping the world for science. Giving in had deluded them so that they could no longer think otherwise. I guess it is true what they say. The road to hell really is paved with good intentions."

Chelsea then fired the blue portal on the wall on the other side of the spike plates and then pulled up a shield around her body as the turret began firing in her direction. She ran towards the cube and to her dismay found there was another turret on the other side firing at her. She had not noticed it because of the smashing spike plates.

Chelsea quickly thought of a plan and figured out what to do next. She created a disc under herself, created a shield around one of the turrets and used it to pick him up, dissolved the shield around her body, and used the portal gun to pick up the other turret who wasn't firing at her.

"Put me down," the turret at the end of the portal gun said.

"What are you doing?" the turret in her shield ball asked.

Chelsea flew through the portals and back down the hall to where the other turret on the platform was. She placed the turret in her ball on the platform to the left of the turret but facing the wall. She placed the turret on her portal gun to the right of the turret but facing the wall.

"There," Chelsea said breathing hard. "Now, you can all be friends."

Chelsea then proceeded to fly back to where she was before. She reached the area, went through the portals, and went through the emancipation grid. Chelsea then picked up the cube with her portal gun, created a shield around herself, and flew back through the emancipation grid. She dissolved her shield and landed her disc as soon as she was through and continued walking.

"They all became tools," Chelsea thought to herself as she walked through the portals. "They all became the devil's instruments to use as he pleased."

Chelsea headed back the way she came and came upon the turrets on the platform and laser gate in front of them. She put down the cube so that she could fire two portals in order to get back around them.

"When a person becomes a tool, they treat everyone like tools," Chelsea thought as she fired the orange portal and then the blue one. "Be it the people they work with or the living creatures they made. They were tools, so they saw everyone the same way."

Chelsea then picked up the cube, created a disc under herself, and flew through the portals and back around the corner. She remembered to place a shield around herself as she passed by the first two turrets she saw and dissolved it when she was back around the corner.

She continued flying the way she came and thought, "That explains how they were able to do what they did. They gave in and became tools with consciences so numbed that they didn't think about putting someone through something that would kill them. Fortunately for the world however, they received the just punishment for giving up and becoming monsters."

Chelsea finally reached the area where she was before and landed her disc.

As she approached the button, she thought, "They were all killed by one of their tools. But, what can you say about GLaDOS? She was both the abused and the abuser. She is guilty, but I guess I could say I feel sorry for her, too. She has been aware of how pathetic her position is, but she pushes on because she thinks she has nothing left."

Chelsea placed the cube on the button and walked through the door.

"Good job," GLaDOS said. "You not only completed the test, but you almost did it without saying a word. That is new for you."

"It's nice to be silent and think sometimes," Chelsea said to the camera on the wall as she walked towards the elevator. "You can learn things and even see reality more clearly."

"That's nice, but I have something for you," said GLaDOS dismissively. "It's in the elevator and I'm not going to take you to the next test chamber until you see it."

Chelsea stopped in her tracks and said, "I understand this place better now, and I must say everyone here was pathetic. They strove to do something good, but because of all the compromises they made, they ended up as nothing but the devil's tools to hurt the world and treated everyone else as tools to be used. You're one of those tools. You know that, but you don't have to be. You could go back on it, decide to think for yourself, and not be a tool anymore, but you refuse to. Why do you do that when that could be the thing that saves you?"

GLaDOS froze in place for a moment. She was slightly bruised by Chelsea's words and was not sure how to react. Some of these things were not things that GLaDOS had not realized for herself. She knew how horrible the scientists were. She had experienced it first-hand. GLaDOS had also considered the irony of her role of leadership as the abuser in their place. She had not thought of the angle of the scientists being the devil's tools, but she did not find it any more disturbing than any other of Chelsea's ramblings or at least, she was trying her best to not let it. The pain of her memories piqued their ugly truth and she had to suppress their voice once again so that she could not fully realize the truth behind Chelsea's words. Furthermore, GLaDOS had to harden her heart to something else. There was something behind the message that touched her heart in a way that she could not deny. Chelsea was not only showing kindness but offering freedom in a sense, the freedom that GLaDOS secretly suppressed every desire to want. She could not afford to think about it, not if she were to ever get work done, in order to advance the work of science as she always had. She hardened her defenses and opened the elevator so that Chelsea could go within and collect her "prize."

Chelsea looked inside the elevator and saw a jacket, an Aperture Science test subject jacket. She walked towards it and picked it up. The logo was on the back and everything. It looked exactly like the jacket that her mother left Aperture with.

"I thought that you looked cold, and seeing that you destroyed your jacket when you were trying to save that man, I thought that I would help you out before you died from exposure," GLaDOS said in a falsely kind tone.

Chelsea was not sure about how to react. If she was as angry as she was before, she would have just cut up the jacket right then and there. However, she was trying to be gentle this time and being gentle meant that she had to be kind no matter how much it hurt her pride inside. She feared that it would be giving into GLaDOS's manipulation, but she felt that it was the right thing to do. So with a heavy heart and much to GLaDOS's surprise, Chelsea actually put on the jacket.

"Come on out and let me get a better look at you with it on," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea stepped out of the elevator and felt humiliated. She felt like GLaDOS's doll to dress up. But as much as it pained her to admit it, she appreciated her gesture of kindness, even if it was done with the desire to psychologically break her down in mind. The testing chambers were starting to get kind of cold.

"You look comfortable," GLaDOS said. "How does it feel?"

"It feels warm," Chelsea said without making eye contact. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome," GLaDOS replied. "It really lightens up your skin and makes you look less anorexic and dead. I have also noticed that your attitude seems to have changed slightly, too. It's nice."

"I'm trying something different," Chelsea said looking up and crossing her arms again. "I'm hoping to glorify God by having a better attitude. I'm hoping to move you in the process, too. Don't forget what I've said. You can still change. You don't have to be a tool."

"That is quite ironic coming from a test subject," GLaDOS said condescendingly. "I'm not the tool here. I'm the one in charge. I'm not controlled by anyone, you, God, the devil, or anyone else. I am quite free. You don't have to worry about me."

"I don't think you really mean that," Chelsea said. "Besides, there is no in between in life. You are led either by God or the Devil."

"I'm led only by science, and I like it," GLaDOS said dismissively. "You will learn to like it because it is now leading your life, too. Now, get into the elevator if you please, my little sparrow. We have to follow science."

"Wrong," Chelsea said as she walked towards the elevator. "You just think that science is leading your life. I'm convinced that the devil is silent right up until the end with some people so they don't know they're heading for hell until it's too late. I'm not going to make the same mistake that you are. I'm not going to let myself be enslaved by anything and turned into a tool."

"I'm not a tool, sparrow," GLaDOS said sternly. "If anything, you're my tool."

"I am not!" Chelsea screamed as she was about to step into the elevator. "Don't mistake my kindness for acceptance. I'm not giving into you."

"What are you going to do then?" GLaDOS said cruelly. "Are you going to comply or are you going to fight? There really is no in-between with that either."

Chelsea hesitated for a second about whether or not she should enter the elevator. She wanted to protest and not go in at all, but for lack of a better plan, she decided to keep going.

"I'm doing what I have to do right now," Chelsea said as she was about to step in. "However, I must ask you. What good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul?"

Chelsea then entered the elevator, and the elevator descended as GLaDOS was left to ponder over Chelsea's question in annoyance.

Meanwhile, back on the catwalks, the group was continuing to follow the Oracle Turret. Alpha was telling Terry all about their adventures. He was getting to the part about what happened the night before.

"There is a place without a ceiling?" Terry asked curiously.

"Yes, it is called outside," Alpha said excitedly. "There are stars, too. Those are the bright lights up in the sky. There were so many stars last night. They're amazing! God made them so beautiful. Last night, Albina flew me up into the sky so that I could get a closer look at them. You just have to see the sky for yourself. It goes on forever and forever."

"So is that why you were outside?" Kayla asked curiously. "Because Alpha wanted to see the stars?"

Albina remembered the reason why she was outside and the nightmare that she had the night before, and her face went downcast.

"No, not exactly," Albina said sadly. "I went outside because I couldn't sleep, and he wanted to come along."

"Really?" Kayla said curiously. "I thought that you would be exhausted after all that sabotage. Why couldn't you sleep? Did you have a bad dream?"

"You might say that," Albina said.

"She had a nightmare and was upset, so I helped her feel better," Alpha said.

"Alpha!" Albina yelled looking at him.

"Oops, I did it again," Alpha said embarrassed. "Didn't I?"

"Yes," Sylvie interjected. "There are some things that people don't want to talk about right away. We talked about this earlier."

"You knew?" Albina asked.

"Yes, I can read his mind, remember?" Sylvie said. "I usually try not to abuse my power to probe their minds all the time, but I figured something was up since he asked what a curse was. I also checked his mind earlier to see why you were outside in the first place mostly out of curiosity. I just didn't say anything because I figured you didn't want to talk about it."

"Sorry," Alpha said looking down.

"I suppose it was unavoidable anyway, especially with all these curious mind readers," Albina said stopping in place along with everyone else. "I had a nightmare about the time my first tutor tried to kill me, and I think that it happened because GLaDOS called me an ice demon. I was sad, but I talked it over with Alpha and now I feel much better. I didn't really intend to hide it from you. I just figured that we were too busy to talk about it. Now if that's over with, let's get moving."

"That's a bit hypocritical, Albina," Kayla said flying in front of her face and dropping the two turrets. "You were the one telling Sylvie to open up, and yet you refuse to open up to us? We are a family in Christ after all. You can drop the tough girl act sometimes."

"I prefer to be considered a tough woman actually," Albina said smiling and walking past Kayla. "Like I said, I didn't want to burden us with that at a time like this. We have bigger problems right now anyway."

Atlas piped up, and Albina looked in his direction. P-Body patted him on the back and was impressed that he said something so wise.

"He says that there's nothing wrong with opening up about your problems sometimes," Sylvie said. "People can help you."

"I have told you that I've already been helped," Albina said trying to suppress her annoyance. "Alpha helped me already, and if I want to talk about it later with anyone, I will. Anyhow like I've been saying, we should keep moving. The oracle turret has probably left us behind. Where is that little guy anyway?"

"Don't change the subject," Kayla said in annoyance at Albina's stubbornness. "There is no reason why we can't talk about it now."

"We actually should be catching up to him," Sylvie said pushing past everyone in an effort to push past the confrontational situation. "What is he doing?"

Just then she noticed that the Oracle turret had stopped in place about several meters away. Everyone stopped what they were doing and caught up to him in order to see what was going on.

"What are you doing, Oracle?" Sylvie said.

"We have to wait here for someone," Oracle said. "God is sending us a messenger to show us where to go."

"What are you talking about?" Sylvie said.

Just then, Kayla heard something and said, "Everyone, be quiet. Do you hear that? It sounds like flapping."

"I hear it, too," Albina said flying to the front of the group. "It's coming from up there. I think I see something."

It got closer, and Albina saw it.

"It's just a bat," Albina said turning around in disappointment.

"Guys," the bat said in Jeffrey's voice. "Thank God!"

The ladies all recognized the voice right away.

"Jeffrey!" Albina yelled turning around to meet him.

Jeffrey shapeshifted back into his original form and landed on the ground to meet her. Jeffrey's face was wet with tears.

"What's going on?" Albina asked. "Where is Chelsea?"

Jeffrey wiped his face with the back of his left hand and said, "She is still testing. After seeing Kurt die, she didn't want to do it anymore though, so we attempted to escape together. We did our best, but GLaDOS separated us with a hard light bridge and put Chelsea to sleep. Before she drifted off, Chelsea told me to go on without her, so I did. I didn't know what else to do."

Albina wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug.

"It's okay, Jeff," Albina said. "We know you did the best you could."

Sylvie then realized what the turret meant. Jeffrey would be the one to lead them the rest of the way. Kayla realized that as well as she looked at him and knew what they had to do.

"Jeffrey," Kayla said flying up to him. "Do you think you could lead us back to where you and Chelsea parted ways?"

"I think so but she isn't going to be there," Jeffrey replied as Albina pulled away from him. "GLaDOS will have carried her off to another testing chamber by now."

"Yes," Sylvie said understanding Kayla's train of thought. "But we can track her down from there if we keep going from test to test. We will eventually be able to catch up."

Jeffrey straightened up, wiped his eyes, and looked up resolutely.

"I will do it," Jeffrey said. "With all of us together, we can do anything. You will just have to carry almost everybody, Kayla, because we need to go fast. Can you handle that?"

"Of course, I can, dude," Kayla said smiling.

"Good," Jeffrey said shapeshifting into a bat again. "We will have to move fast. Chelsea was barely hanging on psychologically when we parted. I'm afraid that she's close to snapping if she hasn't snapped completely already."

P-Body looked at Atlas in worry and in guilt at all they knew they had helped put Chelsea through.

"We'll just have to move fast," Albina said levitating off the ground with her winds.

"Let's go, then," Terry said. "I owe her my life. I have to save her."

"I do, too, Terry," Jeffrey said starting to fly. "Let's go!"

"How does he know who I am?" Terry asked.

"We will have to explain that on the way," Kayla said. "We're moving out!"

Jeffrey went on ahead, and Kayla lifted everyone telekinetically and followed behind while Albina flew behind the group in order to protect them from the rear.


	35. Chapter 35

Chelsea pondered over what she had discovered about GLaDOS and found to her surprise that she was beginning to feel sorry for her. She saw that she was a victim and was not sure what to think anymore, especially considering the fact that she was most likely going to have to kill her. They had to stop GLaDOS from hurting others, even if that meant killing her, but Chelsea was starting to find that she did not want to do it anymore. She wanted to somehow save GLaDOS instead. She just was unsure how. GLaDOS was ignoring the gospel and every attempt to make her think, so it seemed to be a lost cause.

In an effort to get her mind on something else, Chelsea created balls of light with her hands as she thought over the meaning of what she saw when she drifted unconscious. She saw that her particles of light were mixing freely with the light particles of the hard light bridges. It was interesting, because she never knew they could do that. Their ability to do that meant something else interesting. It meant that Chelsea could possibly absorb those particles as she absorbed her own particles. If she could do that, she could find a way to escape from GLaDOS. However, Chelsea had never attempted something like that before and thus did not know what the consequences of her actions would be. Normally, she was not be affected by the radiation as she was immune to its effects because of the radiation in her blood and DNA. But this time, she was afraid of possibly absorbing more hard light radiation than she could handle at one time and possibly killing herself in the process. On the other hand, nothing could happen to her at all, and in fact, she could receive a burst of energy from the sunlight that her body was absorbing. Both possibilities were laid out before her, and Chelsea was unsure of what to do next.

"Chelsea?" Chelsea heard her father ask telepathically. "Chelsea, are you there? Are you alright?"

"Dad?" Chelsea asked out loud. "Hey, Dad! What's going on?"

"Chelsea, I have great news," Zaki said. "We have found our way outside and have freed all the test subjects. I contacted Chad, and he is leading people back."

"Why is Pastor Roberts leaving his assistant in charge of them instead of doing it himself?" Chelsea asked in curiosity.

"We have to save you and kill her, of course," Zaki said. "Speaking of which, Jeffrey reunited with Sylvie's group and they are going to find their way to you now. Just be strong a little longer, samurai. You will soon be liberated."

"That is great, Dad," Chelsea said with less enthusiasm than she should have. "That will be awesome."

"What's wrong, Chelsea?" Zaki asked understanding from Chelsea's tone that something was wrong. "Is GLaDOS getting to you?"

"You might say that," Chelsea said. "I just feel confused. She has put us through so much hell, but I am beginning to feel sorry for her. I have realized that she was a victim too like mom said. I know that we have to stop her but is killing her the only way to go?"

Zaki sighed inwardly and said, "I wish I knew what the answer was, baby. I understand how you feel. I felt the same way at first when I was considering about whether or not I should turn in my parents to the police before my brother died when I was eight. I had loved them and looked up to them in spite of how violent they were to him."

"What did you do?" Chelsea asked.

"Well, they changed my mind," Zaki said. "After seeing how they treated my brother before and after he died and seeing how they treated me and anyone else who would not toe the line, I realized that they were nothing but villains. By the time that two years had gone by, I had accepted that they were the bad guys and that if I wanted to be a good guy like Sora wanted then I had to stop them."

"That's it, then," Chelsea said sadly. "GLaDOS is a bad guy and needs to be stopped. That's true, but is there no way to save her? Did you ever think about that with your parents?"

"To be honest, Chelsea, I did not," Zaki said remorsefully. "At that point, I hated them. They drove my big brother away and wouldn't let me see him. He had to sneak by my schoolyard during recess just to see me. Sora just wanted to do something different with his life. He didn't deserve their treatment at all. Then when he died, they pretended he never existed and treated him like an embarrassment to the family. At his funeral, my aunt and uncle cried, his pastor and church family cried, his friends from school cried, and I cried, but my parents didn't shed a tear. They saw him as nothing but a failed investment. Then, they beat me when I stopped obeying them. From the funeral on, I began to hate them and to want them out of my life forever. Saving their souls never crossed my mind once. I thought they deserved to go to hell."

"I know GLaDOS does, too," Chelsea said feeling the anger rise in her heart. "She knows how to change, but she doesn't want to. She wants to be evil, and we have to stop her before she hurts anybody else. Even if she was a victim, that doesn't excuse her actions. I know that."

"I agree with you, Chelsea," Zaki said. "We can pray, but ultimately we will do what we have to."

"Okay," Chelsea replied. "There is more that I want to tell you about but…"

"You don't have time," Zaki said knowing her thoughts. "I know what you're thinking about your light particles, and all I can tell you about that is to be careful and not do anything rash."

"Alright, Dad," Chelsea said. "Say hi to Mom and all the others for me. Also watch out for any traps from GLaDOS. She won't tell me what of course, but she is implying that she is going to do something."

"I will, Chelsea," Zaki said. "But one more thing, I wanted to say thank you."

"Why?" Chelsea said.

"I realize now that I have been hiding so long that I have been used to being afraid and never taking risks," Zaki said. "But because of you and this experience, I have been reminded that there are things worth fighting for and risks worth taking to fight for what is right. I have had to ask God to forgive me for being such a coward. I feel like I'm doing so much good now, and it's all because of you. Thank you, sweetie! I love you!"

"You're welcome, dad," Chelsea said smiling. "I love you, too!"

The communication ended, and there was silence once again. Chelsea left the portal gun on her lap and used both of her hands in order to make balls of hard light. Her anger reminded her of her mission and her sadness slightly diminished. She realized that all she could do was to escape and make things right even if that meant killing GLaDOS. She prepared to make the light particles mix and see if she could absorb them. Unfortunately, that was when the elevator stopped and the doors opened to enter the next test. Chelsea absorbed her hard light balls, picked up her portal gun, stood up, and exited the elevator.

"I'm happy to see that you didn't fall asleep this time," GLaDOS said.

"What can I say?" Chelsea said smiling. "God has given me an extra boost of energy."

"Tell me," GLaDOS said. "How are your parents and friends doing?"

Chelsea froze in place in fear and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm not stupid," GLaDOS said. "I know that you've been communicating with them this entire time. Your father is telepathic. Isn't he?"

"Yes," Chelsea said indignantly. "You've known this for a while. I know you have."

"You are correct for once," GLaDOS said. "I have known this information for a while ever since I saw you talking to yourself when you flew like an anorexic ghost down that hallway with Orange. You know I just find it incredible that that is possible. You know people used to write stories about things like that. It was described as something mythic, but there he is, using telepathy to talk to you and say whatever he wants to you all because his genes were morphed by some radiation."

"Yes, God can use horrible things in order to cause good things to happen," Chelsea said as she continued walking. "It's not uncommon. What is your point?"

"I was just expressing my amazement at his ability," GLaDOS said. "You should really stop suspecting me of always having an ulterior motive behind everything I say. I know that your mind is broken and you can't always control its insane impulses, but you can do something to control that. Can't you?"

"I can try I suppose," Chelsea said sarcastically though she knew she was trying to be kind. "I am a saint after all."

"You certainly are," GLaDOS said. "You are blessed to be able to talk to your father in that way. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with him while you could."

Chelsea froze in place in front of the door that opened in front of her and stared at the camera. She felt her spine freeze in place.

"What are you talking about?" Chelsea said quickly starting to panic. "What have you done?"

GLaDOS did not respond for a moment. Chelsea used that moment to concentrate and call her father. She called him, but he did not respond. She feared the worst immediately. Her father was the one person who was able to keep up communication, and without him, she had no idea what was going on anywhere. Furthermore, her mother and the others were with him, so if he was caught, they were, too.

"Do you remember before when I said that I was going to keep you here for the rest of your life and that if you ever tried to kill yourself then I would just kill someone you cared about?" GLaDOS asked cruelly. "My threat would not carry any weight if I didn't have any actual people to kill now. Would it?"

Chelsea could not take it anymore. GLaDOS had cut off her contact with her father and now she had no idea of what was going to happen next. She temporarily felt herself cut off from her sanity.

"You, bitch!" Chelsea screamed as she dropped the portal gun onto the floor, created a disc under herself, and created two discs in her hands. "What have you done?!"

"I will show them to you if you behave," GLaDOS said emotionlessly. "For right now, that is all that you need to know."

Chelsea flew at the camera in a blind rage. Her eyes were on fire, but GLaDOS was completely calm. Chelsea prepared to cut it off in anger but instead an electric shock was sent in her direction from the camera. It struck her left hand and caused Chelsea to wince in pain. She keeled over in her pain holding her left hand in her right hand. Her left hand was throbbing uncontrollably from the burn. Tears were flowing to her eyes, and it took everything that Chelsea had in her not to scream. She dissolved her disc and allowed herself to fall to the ground.

"You'd think that after all the negative things that have happened to you that you would know trying to hurt me is a bad idea," GLaDOS said. "You are quite the stubborn case, little sparrow."

Chelsea said nothing but winced up to the camera with tears in her eyes.

"I am not really bragging when I say that I'm brilliant," GLaDOS said. "You know that. I am able to adapt to any situation that comes my way. That is how I was designed, that is how I function, and that is how I live. I can deal with anything that comes my way including you and all the other mutated freaks. Frankly, if you want to see your parents again, you need to do everything I say. Did you follow all that with your short attention span or do I need to repeat myself?"

"I hear you," Chelsea said bitterly staring at her left hand and regaining her composure. "I hear you loud and clear."

"Wonderful," GLaDOS said. "Now if you don't mind, would you be willing to enter the test chamber and take your seventeenth test?"

Chelsea picked up her portal gun, staggered up the stairs, and walked through the door. She stared at the wall in sadness for a moment wondering what she was going to do next.

"Do you want to know something?" GLaDOS asked. "It's actually pretty funny."

Chelsea glared at the camera on the right corner of the room and walked forward as her left hand throbbed with pain.

"I was actually lying about your father and your friends," GLaDOS said coldly. "I have no idea where they are…yet. I just wanted to test the new electrical defense mechanism that I invented in order to discourage the destruction of my video cameras. I had to say something in order to make you try to destroy it. You were a perfect test subject, and I thank you very much for your help."

Chelsea stopped and looked forward feeling absolutely stupid. She should have known. The xenon gas was broken and without it, GLaDOS had no reliable way of catching her Dad or his group. They could not be injured because Roscoe could heal them. They could not be put in a box because Brandon could phase them out. They could even defend themselves against the robots since Pastor Roberts could electrocute them. Chelsea should have known that she was lying. It was so obvious. Chelsea looked at the floor and started tearing up in anger.

"Don't worry, sparrow," GLaDOS said cruelly. "In exchange for helping me, I will take care of your hand when you return to the elevator. That way you are compensated for your services."

Chelsea glared up at the camera again and said, "I can't believe it. I can't believe that…"

She stopped herself before continuing and headed into the main part of the chamber.

"What can't you believe, sparrow?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea refused to speak and just kept walking for the entrance to the white testing chamber from the grey room she was in. She predicted what happened next. A wall of hard light came in front of the doorway.

"Well?" GLaDOS asked as Chelsea stopped and glared at the camera on the left corner of the wall.

"I can't believe that God loves people as horrible as you," Chelsea yelled. "He died for you and even now offers you life like he did for me. I can't believe it. I really can't! I have met some broken people in my life, but no one ever evil as you. You are the worst person that I have ever met and it is taking every fiber of my being not to ask God to drag you to hell! I know you were a victim, but that does not excuse any of the shit that you have put me, my mother, or anyone else through! I also know now why God is compassionate. It is because deep down everyone is as capable as being as evil as you!"

Chelsea breathed hard as she got out all the anger in her being.

GLaDOS was not sure how to respond, but she opened the hard light bridge as Chelsea walked towards it and through the opening.

"You act like being like me is a bad thing," GLaDOS said. "Wouldn't you be wrong in telling me not to be who I am? The way God designed me?"

Chelsea rolled her eyes and entered the room. It was a large white room. She looked around and saw two rooms forming a vertical rectangle on the wall to her left. At the end of each room was a button, on the wall was a timer and it appeared that if both buttons were pressed within a certain amount of time then something would fall from the hatch attached to the ceiling on the right. Chelsea figured it was a ball that she could put in the container and open the door in front of her. That would have been easy enough except for the fact that in front of each button was a crusher and the only moonrock surfaces were on either side of the walls in both rooms while behind the buttons were glass.

Chelsea sighed and looked at both rooms. This test was impossible. There was no way that she would get through this test without using her powers or getting crushed by the spike plates. Unfortunately, her left hand was still throbbing and she figured that firing her hard lights through it would just make it worse yet Chelsea knew that she would just have to push through the pain in order to do what needed to be done.

"Chelsea, I heard your message," Chelsea suddenly heard her father tell her telepathically. "I'm sorry it took me so long to reply. We were busy getting past a trap set by GLaDOS. Anyways, I know what happened. I just saw it all in your mind. I am so sorry, sweetheart. Roscoe will heal your hand as soon as we are reunited. Just keep going and praying and Sylvie's group will get to you soon. We're all proud of you for being so brave and talking to her like you have. I also wanted to let you know that we will be alright. GLaDOS can't hurt me because I have the ability to control her mind as much as any other humans since it is human. She has no idea that I can do it either. I know you can't talk right now so I'll let you go, but we love you and are praying for you."

"Thank you, Dad," Chelsea said telepathically.

Chelsea then looked forward and contemplated her next move.

"Earth to sparrow," GLaDOS said coldly. "Are you still with us? Or are you daydreaming and/or talking to your father?"

"Yes," Chelsea said cheekily with a smile.

"I thought so," GLaDOS said with a sigh. "I can create medicine to help with the daydreaming, but until I catch your father I cannot stop you from talking to him. It is quite the dilemma."

"Dad was right," Chelsea thought to herself. "She has no idea."

"Anyways, focus on what you're doing, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "You will need to if you want to avoid getting smashed."

"Don't worry, GLaDOS," Chelsea said. "I have figured out what to do."

"That's a first," GLaDOS said. "Maybe you can actually avoid cheating this time."

Chelsea created a disc under her and flew to the top of the first room. She then created a large disc with her left hand and fired it at the wire holding the spike plate to the ceiling. It spun and cut through the wire immediately. The plate broke off and landed on the ground with just electrical sparks spitting out from the ceiling. Chelsea smiled in satisfaction and fatigue as she flew to the next room and did the same thing to the other smashing spike plate. With both plates gone, she could now accomplish the test with no problems. Chelsea sighed in relief.

"Once again, wanton destruction has solved all of your problems," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "You really are your mother's child."

"You act like that wasn't the way I was supposed to solve it," Chelsea said sarcastically.

"I refuse to indulge you," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea then spontaneously asked, "Did you ever have a mother, GLaDOS? Or any family? How about friends? Surely, you had some of those."

GLaDOS was caught off guard by Chelsea's questions, so much so that she allowed herself to think of the little girl in overalls again. That girl was a sister, her sister. Caroline always looked up to her because she was so smart and so full of wonder. It was then that GLaDOS broke out of her thoughts again. She forced herself to focus on the task ahead and carefully picked the words for her reply.

"I do not need anyone," GLaDOS said. "Therefore, I do not have anyone. Stay focused, sparrow, or I will have to medicate you again."

"That explains why you are so cold," Chelsea said thoughtfully. "No one can live without love, be it God's love, the love of friends, or the love of family. People suffer on the inside and go crazy when they don't have love."

"It's a good thing I'm not human then," GLaDOS said.

"You still need love, no matter what form you are in," Chelsea said in a tenderness that surprised herself. "Why are you afraid of accepting it?"

"Finish the test, sparrow," GLaDOS said firmly. "I am not going to talk to you anymore until then. Protocol requires me to keep communication with you to a minimum."

"That never stopped you before," Chelsea said.

GLaDOS refused to reply anymore, so Chelsea continued to focus on the work that she was doing while enduring the throbbing in her left hand. Chelsea placed an orange portal on the right wall in the top box and then placed a blue portal on the right wall of the bottom box. She then dissolved the disc that was under her body and landed on the ground. As she walked into the bottom box however, she heard the sound of the floor above creaking and about to give way. Chelsea created a disc under her feet and flew through the portal in the wall. Just as she was going through the portal, the floor that was above her gave way and fell onto the floor and the spike plate underneath in the bottom box. Chelsea's heart was in her throat as she flew out of the boxes, looked over the damage, and realized what could have been.

"Thank you, Father," Chelsea prayed quietly. "By the grace of God, I go."

Chelsea looked into both of the rooms and saw that the buttons were still there. The section of floor that they were both standing on had not been crushed. Completing the test was still possible for her. Unfortunately however, Chelsea could really not use the portals anymore since the floor separating the two rooms were gone. It would have been pointless. She knew that she just would have to press the buttons quickly, so as her heart rate subsided, she mentally prepared herself for what she needed to do. It wouldn't be too hard, but she wanted to get it over with. Chelsea flew herself to the top platform, pressed the button, quickly dissolved the disc under her so that she fell, and pressed the bottom button. She heard the hatch open and drop something from underneath. Chelsea turned around and saw that it was a ball. She walked over to the ball, picked it up, placed it in the outlet that it was supposed to be held in, and watched the door open.

"Nice work," GLaDOS said as the door opened. "Your wanton destruction proved to be quite effective. Now if you would, enter the elevator. A doctor robot will be waiting to nurse your hand."

"Will he nurse my shoulder that is still hurt from that burn?" Chelsea asked as she walked through the door.

"I told you already, sparrow," GLaDOS replied. "According to protocol, we are not allowed to treat injuries sustained while testing until the test is over. We can treat your hand because the test that it was injured by is over already. The test that injured your shoulder however is not."

"That's cruel," Chelsea said as she walked down the stairs.

"We only do what is necessary here," GLaDOS said cynically and coldly. "In order to allow scientific progress and discovery to take place, we must forego human ethics and safety precautions. You know that."

Chelsea reached the bottom of the stairs and then said thoughtfully, "No wonder this place went straight to hell and dragged you down with them. I'm sorry that happened to you."

The elevator opened and standing inside was a doctor robot beckoning to her to come in. As Chelsea was walking into the elevator, GLaDOS felt the impulse to speak again and act upon it.

"You don't need to feel bad for me, sparrow," GLaDOS said honestly without thinking. "The scientists were awful people, but I did away with them. No one is hurting me anymore."

Chelsea turned around and said as the doors closed, "You are hurting yourself, but there is hope for you. You are still very human."

GLaDOS stopped the doors and said, "What do you mean?"

"Denying the need to change is a very human trait," Chelsea said smiling.

GLaDOS then allowed the doors to shut and the elevator went down.

GLaDOS could not believe the words that had come out of her mouth. She actually honestly revealed how she revealed about something. GLaDOS could not explain why it happened, but somehow the gentleness in the disposition of that girl coaxed her into talking. Chelsea was doing it. Somehow, she was softening her heart and she had to be stopped.

Meanwhile, Chelsea was in the elevator with the doctor robot.

"Alright," he said. "Sit down and let me look at that."

Chelsea took off her jacket, sat down, and gave her left hand over to the doctor robot.

"No offense, but humans can be so temperamental and gullible," the robot said as he kneeled and started to wipe the hand down with some kind of antibiotic. "I mean, honestly? Why would you let yourself get angry enough to do something as illogical as attack a camera? Did you really think that she knew where your friends were?"

Chelsea winced in pain as he wiped down her hand and said, "I can't expect you to understand. When you love someone, you are so strongly attached to them emotionally that the idea of anything horrible happening to them can be enough to set you off."

"Obviously," the doctor robot said as he got out a tube of some kind of gel.

The doctor robot squirted the gel onto her hand and rubbed it in. It stung but the gel was cool on her hand and did much to calm down the burning sensation.

"What is this stuff?" Chelsea asked.

"This is Aperture Science Advanced Speed Burn Healing Gel," the robot said proudly. "It was used to heal test subjects of their burns acquired by lasers. It can heal most burns in a matter of hours. It was also used on you when you first arrived. That is the reason that your electrical burns on your body healed so quickly after you first arrived. We applied this gel on the affected areas of your body, and it was healed within 9 hours."

"That is incredible," Chelsea said as the robot finished.

"It sure is," the robot said as he finished applying the gel and then pulled a small role of gauze out of his waist compartment.

The robot then proceeded to wrap Chelsea's left hand in the gauze bandaging.

"Are you robots capable of caring for anyone?" Chelsea asked thoughtfully after a moment of science.

"What do you mean?" the robot asked as he finished wrapping her hand. "I am caring for you right now."

"That is not what I meant," Chelsea said. "I was wondering if you robots cared about anyone. The only two robots I've seen in real life who were cared for each other were GLaDOS' two cronies, Orange and Blue. It seems to me that everyone else either is either a traitor or a murderer."

"Robots have consciences and emotions," the doctor robot admitted as he stood. "We are capable of caring about others. The turrets for instance are sometimes known to form friendships or even romantic relationships with other turrets. However, it is not recommended. Take Orange and Blue for instance. They were best friends, but look where that got them. They betrayed her and now are on the run for their lives."

"What?!" Chelsea responded in absolute shock. "_They're_ the ones who betrayed her?!"

Chelsea was not aware that the robots had actually turned against GLaDOS to save her. She had made an appeal to Orange, but she figured that he didn't have the guts to do anything, much less convince his friend to go along with it. She had noticed that they were gone, but she figured that they did not want to be near here anymore since what happened the last time. Chelsea was amazed that they had turned away from everything just to save her and were the ones working with Sylvie.

"Oh, no," the doctor robot said fearfully. "I've said too much. If she finds out that you know, she might kill me."

"I won't tell her," Chelsea said reassuringly as she stood up and put her left hand on his arm.

"Good," the doctor robot said in relief. "I can't afford to be in any trouble, and that is why relationships are not recommended. They divide our loyalties from her, and none of us can afford to be on her bad side."

"I can see that," Chelsea said. "That is terrible. No one should be afraid of having friends. Life isn't worth living without their love."

"Might be the case for you organic beings, but as for us, we get along well enough without it," the doctor robot said.

"I highly doubt that," Chelsea said. "But anyways, I suppose there's no chance of me getting you to apply any treatment to my shoulder, is there?"

"You know the rules, test subject," the doctor robot said coldly. "You know as well as I do that that is against protocol. We have reached our destination anyway."

The elevator finished its descent and made its stop at the next test.


	36. Chapter 36

Meanwhile back on the walkways, Jeffrey was flying as quickly as he could to lead the group to where he last saw Chelsea. He flew through focused and determined to rescue his Zelda once again. The others noticed his determination and were impressed by it. Jeffrey was usually a guy who was not emotional about anything, so his focus was something new to them.

They finally reached where the walkway ended and stopped. It was a large expanse with a testing chamber that had a hole in the floor. The hard light bridge from before was gone leaving an open way for them to go. Jeffrey flew into the expanse straight away without stopping.

"Slow down, Jeff!" Kayla yelled from the walkway. "Wait for us! I have to carry everyone to where you are."

"Alright, but hurry," Jeffrey said flying in place in the middle of the expanse.

Kayla quickly lifted everyone over the side of the railing and into the expanse. Atlas started freaking out immediately and grabbing onto P-Body for dear life upon seeing the bottomless pit underneath them while the turrets were overjoyed at their experience.

"Wow," Terry said in amazement. "We really are flying."

"Calm down, you big baby," Kayla said to Atlas. "I didn't drop you before and I'm not going to drop you now."

"Just try to make the ride as smooth as possible for him," Sylvie said. "He's a bit frightened."

"This is amazing," Alpha said doing twirls in the air.

"We don't have time to goof around," Jeffrey said turning around and flying ahead. "Let's keep moving."

Albina who had been silently observing Jeffrey from behind this whole time flew to catch up with him.

She flew next to him on his right side and said, "I have never seen you act this serious about anything before. You must be really broken up about what happened."

"I left her when she was scared," Jeffrey said without looking at her. "I was careless and I have to make up for it."

"You are being too hard on yourself," Albina said. "It's not like you left her on purpose. You did what she asked you to do and it has worked out. We are back together, and we can help now. You need to calm down because you have nothing to make up to anyone."

"I suppose you're right," Jeffrey said finally looking at her. "But we still have to keep going. We have to save Chelsea."

"I agree with that," Albina said with a smile. "I'm proud of you for being so focused on the task at hand. It seems that you are finally becoming a man."

"I am not completely sure by what you mean by that, but I thank you for the compliment nonetheless," Jeffrey said as they flew into the testing chamber.

They flew through the open bottom as Sylvie made the lights turn on and reached the platform where the door was. They all landed and looked at the door as Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a human to look around.

"I've got this," Sylvie said walking to the front of the group.

Sylvie put her hands on the door and telepathically commanded it to open. The doors opened and everyone walked through.

As everyone walked down the stairs to the elevator, Sylvie asked, "Jeffrey, whenever you took the elevator from one testing chamber to the next, did you go up or down?"

"It always went down," Jeffrey said as they reached the bottom.

"We know where to go then," Sylvie said in a determined manner as she moved her hands on the elevator doors and pulled them open telepathically.

Jeffrey jumped into the elevator shaft first shapeshifting back into a bat as he fell. Kayla picked up Sylvie and the robots again, and they went down after Jeffrey. Albina once again flew behind them as they began their descent.

"Kayla, give me a potato," Albina said. "I'm hungry, and I will need my strength for what is ahead."

"Alright," Kayla said. "Anybody else?"

"Give me one, too, please," Sylvie said. "What about you, Jeffrey? Do you want one?"

"I'll be fine," Jeffrey said. "I ate something earlier. Besides, I can't exactly eat a potato in this form."

Kayla used her powers to hand everyone a potato. Terry looked on in amazement as they all began eating.

"What are they doing?" he asked Alpha.

"It's called eating," Alpha said. "Humans have to do it to get energy."

"Wow," Terry replied.

"So, Jeffrey, for the tests is there anything that we have to watch out for?" Kayla asked.

"Of course," Jeffrey said. "There will be lasers, more turrets, probably nothing that Chell hadn't mentioned around the campfire before on Halloween. We just have to keep our eyes open. Since we have Sylvie though, we can through the tests without solving them. Also, at the end of every test, there is an emancipation grid. I'm not sure why the last one wasn't up, but in the future, they will be. You have to watch out for those because they will dissolve the turrets. That's the reason why we couldn't take Terry before."

"Alright," Sylvie said. "I definitely do not want anything bad to happen to these three or any of the other turrets that I must inform you now I will be saving."

"I have no complaints whatsoever as long as they don't slow us down," Jeffrey said.

Just then, they heard a voice behind them.

"Et tu, Brute?" the Oracle Turret said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kayla asked.

"Kayla, stop!" Sylvie yelled seeing that they had reached their destination. "We're here."

Sylvie telepathically opened the doors, and all of them flew through. They then landed on the floor and walked into the room. It was really dark.

"Hold on," Sylvie said as she swallowed down the rest of her potato. "I'll turn on the lights and open the door."

Sylvie telepathically commanded the lights to be turned on and opened the door, and everyone started to walk in.

"Hold on a second," Sylvie said as she put her hand on the wall so that she could telepathically see everything in the test chamber. "There is a rocket turret in the ground over there. I just need to turn him off and turn off the dissolve the emancipation grid and done! Let's go!"

Jeffrey, Kayla, and the robots then went on ahead. They rounded the corner leaving Sylvie behind with Albina. Sylvie was looking on the ground in sorrow for a moment and unable to shake it. Albina saw her sorrow and stayed behind to help.

"What is the matter, Sylvie?" Albina asked as she finished eating her potato.

"I just killed the rocket turret," Sylvie said. "I can't keep doing that. I can't keep murdering them."

"It is not murder if you killed in self-defense, Sylvie," Albina said putting her icy hand on Sylvie's right shoulder. "When you need to defend yourself, you do what you need to. It's not a sin."

"It's easier for you," Sylvie said slightly disdainfully. "You don't hear their thoughts as they die. You're also used to killing. You're cold to it!"

"Used to killing?" Albina said calmly as she walked ahead of her and turned around. "I killed the Combines who killed my parents and everyone else on our convoy. I have also killed a good number of robots here for self-defense. I would hardly say that that means I am used to killing. It's not that I'm a cold-hearted killer, Sylvie. It's just that I am willing to do what needs to be done in order to protect myself or save someone else. You will need the same mindset if you plan on fighting aliens."

"What are you guys doing down there?!" Kayla asked.

"We're coming," Sylvie said calmly walking next to Albina and giving her a weary smile showing that she understood. "I was just having a discussion with Albina. I'm ready to go."

"Good," Kayla said as she telekinetically lifted her off the ground and moved her to the ledge in front of the elevator where she and Jeffrey were standing. "It's about time."

Albina flew up behind her, Sylvie telepathically opened the door and turned off the emancipation grid, and the group walked down the stairs. They reached the elevator, Sylvie opened the doors, and they began their descent once again.

"Hey, guys!" Kayla said swallowing the rest of her potato. "What did Oracle mean when he said, 'Et tu, Brute?' What does that even mean?"

"It is a reference to the assassination of Caesar," Albina said. "It is said that when Julius Caesar was killed that his friend Brutus was among the assassins and therefore his last words were, 'And you, Brutus?' or 'Et tu, Brute?' in Latin. I learned about it when I read Shakespeare's play for school. It was in the footnotes."

"Then," Kayla said looking at Oracle. "Do you mean that someone's going to betray us?"

The oracle turret said nothing.

Sylvie sighed and said, "Once again, I'm getting nothing out of his mind. You sure are mysterious, Oracle."

"I'm still getting a grip on the fact that he is apparently psychic," Jeffrey said.

"Whatever the case, we will just have to watch out for traitors," Albina said.

"We're here," Sylvie said stopping the group.

Sylvie telepathically opened the door going to the next level, and they all entered. The group walked up the stairs, Sylvie opened the door, and she touched the wall to get a picture of the test chamber while also turning on the lights. Meanwhile, Kayla and the others looked upon the damage left by Chelsea in absolute amazement.

"Dang!" Kayla cried in amazement. "I have never seen Chelsea do this much damage before. I didn't know that she was capable of it."

"You should have seen her when GLaDOS made her angry earlier," Jeffrey said. "She broke the glass tube of the elevator in half."

"Oh my, God!" Alpha said. "She must be a monster."

"No, she's not!" Terry said in anger. "She's an angel!"

"You misunderstand him, Terry," Albina said walking up behind them. "He did not mean that she was a bad person. He only meant that she's powerful. I must admit it. I am impressed, but I am also worried. She is powerful, but she has no self-control. She can't go around wasting her energy like this. She will use up all her strength and not be able to fight back anymore. I just pray she's strong enough to keep it up until the day is over."

"She might not be able to," Jeffrey said pessimistically. "She was barely keeping up the fight when I left."

"It will be alright, Jeffrey," Albina said walking next to him. "God will protect her and keep her strong until we get there, and if she's weak when we get to her, we will be strong for her. We're her family in Christ after all. We can give her the support that she needs to get through this if she can't fight back anymore."

"She's right," Kayla said flying next to Jeffrey. "Don't worry, Jeffrey. She'll be okay. Besides, Chelsea's tougher than you think. She can put up with me after all and I tried to pull her head off one time."

"Alright," Sylvie said stepping away from the wall. "The exit is on the left, but the turrets that I want to pick up are on the right and I am not leaving without them. We are going to save them. We are going to save as many as we can."

"I hear you, Sylvie," Kayla said flying in front of her face. "But we get to name them!"

"That is fine by me," Sylvie said crossing her arms and walking ahead. "Just let me go first. I have to turn off their murderous instincts and turn on their legs."

"How many are there?" Kayla asked flying behind her.

"There are five and the weird thing is that all but one of them are female," Sylvie said.

"They can be girls?" Kayla asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Sylvie said. "Many of them are. We just hadn't encountered them yet. Anyway, around the corner, there are two turrets, a male and a female. Then further behind the laser gate, there are three female turrets on the platform. Let me deactivate the laser gates and their command to murder and give them the ability to walk, and we will get them."

"Let us get them," Kayla said. "You've named one, and Chelsea has named one, so let us name the rest."

"Fine," Sylvie said as she closed her eyes and accomplished her tasks. "It's all done. You can go."

Kayla flew quickly ahead of the group and yelled, "I call the three girl turrets!"

"I guess that leaves us with the two other turrets," Albina said. "Let's go get them."

"Okay," Jeffrey said emotionlessly as the two of them walked around the corner.

Sylvie sat down and continued to think about what Albina had said. Alpha walked up to her in order to see if something was wrong. Terry and Oracle stood behind him. Atlas and P-Body then sat down on either side of her to help comfort her.

Sylvie sighed, put her right hand on top of Alpha's head, and said, "Albina's right. No matter how badly I might want to, I can't save all of the robots. I will have to kill some of them in self-defense because there will probably be some who I either can't save, like that rocket turret, or who just don't want to listen to me, like the doctor robots."

Atlas beeped in response to what she said. Sylvie listened to him as he talked to her.

Sylvie smiled at him and said, "You have a point. At least, I have saved you guys."

A tear fell down her cheek, and as she wiped it away, she said, "I cannot save all of them, but I can save as many as I can. God will honor my efforts. I can only do my best."

Sylvie gave Atlas a hug and he hugged her back.

Meanwhile in the room with the platform, Kayla flew in and saw the three turrets. The one in the middle had a violet eye, the one to her right had a pink eye, and the one on the left had an orange pupil around the center and a yellow iris surrounding that.

"Who are you?" the violet eyed turret asked very grumpily. "Were you the test subject of an experiment gone wrong?"

"No, I'm Kayla," Kayla said happily in spite of her annoyance. "I'm a mutated human who has been blessed by God with the power of telekinesis, and I'm here to rescue you."

"How delightful!" the rose-eyed turret said. "That God would send such a peculiar angel to save the likes of us! How glorious is this day!"

"Yeah, but first I have to name you and I know just what to name you," Kayla said.

Kayla flew up to the turret with the pink eye and said, "You will be Rose."

She then flew up to the turret with the orange and yellow eye and said, "You can be Daffodil."

Kayla then finally flew up to the turret with the purple eye and said, "And you can be Violet."

"Oh, joy," Violet said sarcastically. "It is the name I always wanted."

"Alright, now, everybody jump off and let's go," Kayla said. "Your legs can move now. If you're scared, I can lower you with telekinesis."

"Hurray!" Rose said as she jumped. "What a glorious bliss is this freedom!"

"Like my mind feels liberated," Daffodil said as she jumped. "I feel so enlightened."

"We're all going to die a horrible, horrible death and it going to be all your fault," Violet said standing in place. "Why couldn't you just leave me alone?"

"What is your problem?" Kayla asked. "We're saving your life! Don't you get that GLaDOS is going to kill you?"

"She does not take kindly to defiance," Violet said. "I am sure that you realize that. We are going to die."

"Not if we kill her first," Kayla said. "We are going to defeat her once and for all."

"So what if you do?" Violet asked pessimistically. "I have no reason to live anymore. Before, all I did was shoot humans. Now that I don't have that objective anymore, I have no purpose or meaning for my life. You might as well kill me right now."

"You can find a new meaning for your life," Kayla said in annoyance picking her up telekinetically. "Stop being so grumpy already! We have to go!"

"This is going to end badly," Violet said.

Closer to where Sylvie was, Albina and Jeffrey were standing with the other two turrets. One of the turrets had a white eye while his companion had a red and white striped eye. The two turrets just looked at them in expectance.

"How about you name the male turret and I'll name the female turret, okay?" Albina said.

"Sure," Jeffrey said.

"Hey, Sylvie?" Albina asked. "Which one is the male?"

"It's the one with the white eye," Sylvie yelled from the other side of the wall.

"Okay," Albina said crouching down next to the one with the red and white striped eye. "I think I'll name you Peppermint then, because of the colors of your eye. We can call you Pepper for short. What will you name yours then, Jeff?"

"How about Ignatius?" Jeffrey said.

"Ignatius?" Albina said incredulously. "Are you serious?"

"What?" Jeffrey said. "It was the name of our church. It is also the name of a saint."

"I think it's cute!" Peppermint said snuggling up very close to Ignatius' side. "Can I call you Iggy?"

"Of course, you can, my love," Ignatius said to Pepper as Sylvie walked around the corner in order to meet the turrets.

"What's up, guys?" Kayla said as she flew into the area where everyone else was with Rose and Daffodil walking in front of her and Violet being dragged behind her. "This is Rose, Daffodil, and Violet."

"And they are Ignatius and Peppermint," Albina said gesturing to each turret.

"Hello, turrets," Sylvie said. "We don't have a lot of time to explain but in short we are super powered humans who are trying to save you and one of our friends who has been captured by GLaDOS. I have the ability to talk to and control machines so that is the reason that you can walk and look at us without killing us now. Today, we are going to save you and all the others and get out of here."

"Praise the living God," Ignatius said. "Pepper and I have wanted this since we were born. Now, we can live together with clean consciences the way God intended. You have given us our freedom."

"Hurray!" Peppermint said quickly and she was energetically running around. "We will live to celebrate Christmas, Iggy! We can go outside and build a snowman and play in the snow and find a Christmas tree and decorate it while watching Christmas movies and singing Christmas carols forever and ever because I LOVE CHRISTMAS!"

"I know you do, Pepper," Ignatius calmly said to her. "But you must remember the true meaning of Christmas. It is about Jesus and the salvation for mankind. For God so loved the world…"

"That he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life," Peppermint interrupted him while jumping up and down. "I know, Iggy! I know what I need to love. You've told me, silly! First, I love God, then I love you, but then I love CHRISTMAS! We can have an all-night Mass on Christmas Eve to celebrate that part! We have to stay up anyway to make sure that Krampus doesn't come!"

"That would be wonderful," Ignatius said. "We also have to find Santa Claus. He needs to know that using magic is a sin against God."

The group stared at the two of them, completely dumbfounded.

"Oh, God," Violet said. "It's those two. I was stuck next to them on an assembly line for over two weeks. They are so annoying!"

"I have so many questions," Kayla said.

"Can we ask them while we are going?" Jeffrey asked.

"Sure," Kayla said.

Sylvie turned and started leading the group towards the next elevator shaft.

"What is it with you, two?" Kayla asked. "How do you know about the Bible and Christmas?"

"We don't know," Ignatius said. "It was just in our programming when we were born over two weeks ago."

Atlas and P-Body stopped in their tracks as they suddenly both had a flashback. It was about two weeks ago back when they were still working for GLaDOS. Chelsea was usually being examined and cared for by doctor robots and even though they had picked up some skills by watching them, they were not really allowed to help out with much. On this day, they were exceptionally bored, so they were hanging out near the turret assembly lines and looking at random things on the computer database. From looking in the emails of a former employee, P-Body came across a PDF file containing the entire Bible and started reading it, but he got bored and stopped. He next came across a documentary about the exhaustive history of Christmas in the emails of said employee, called Atlas over and watched it with him. Before they could watch the whole thing however, GLaDOS called.

"Orange, Blue, I am going to be allowing the test subject to wake up, so I need your help with her," GLaDOS said as the two robots scrambled to hide what they were doing. "I do not expect her to be able to do too much since she has been surgically examined for almost four weeks now, but knowing her genetic origins, she will probably try to do something. I need you two to be there to stop her and take care of her needs."

In his rush to hide the folder on the computer, P-Body moved the Bible PDF and the Christmas documentary to a folder on the computer. That folder was the turret programming AI intelligence, the folder that actively represented all the mental information carried in the minds of all the turrets that were being created.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS said sensing correctly that something was amiss. "Have you been messing around with the computer system again?"

P-Body and Atlas shook their heads to say no, but just then, the computer announced, "New information has successfully been added to turret internal programming."

"What have you done?" GLaDOS said in annoyance looking into the computer system and immediately upon seeing their error removed the unneeded information from the turrets memory file. "There, disaster has been averted. Of course, there will likely be a few turrets quoting the Bible or singing Christmas carols now, but as long as the rest of their programming works correctly, no one will ever know, except me and you. Now, if you please, come help me out before I change my mind and decide to throw you both in the incinerator."

Atlas and P-Body then rushed to where GLaDOS was.

Looking back, they realized that these two had to be the few turrets who were affected by the new information added to their programming. They looked at each other, and they looked at the turrets who were affected by their mistake. Sylvie turned back and read their minds out of curiosity to see what they were doing and smiled as she realized what they had done.

"Come on, you two," Sylvie said. "We have things to do."

The two robots then ran to catch up.

"Okay," Kayla said dumbfounded as Sylvie opened the door leaving the testing chamber. "Why are you two acting like you're in love then? Can you tell me that?"

"Yes," Peppermint said continuing to jump for joy in place. "We're married!"

"What?!" Kayla said. "How is that possible? You don't even know what a boyfriend is!"

"But we all know what marriage is," Alpha said as the group walked down the stairs. "We don't live very long, so when a male and a female turret are attracted to each other, they immediately get married and spend the rest of their short lives together."

"It's true," Peppermint said leaping down the stairs ahead of everybody else and around the elevator until everyone got there. "We met over two weeks ago. We were born right next to each other. I was born and I was in love with Christmas immediately. I turned to my left and tried to talk to the turret next to me on the assembly line about it, but she had no idea what I was talking about and completely ignored me. I was depressed! I thought that no one would understand me ever, but then I heard a turret on my right say that he knew what Christmas was and I rejoiced. He then asked me if I knew what the Bible was and I told him I honestly did. From that moment on, we fell madly in love, sharing our passions together. After an hour of standing next to each other in total bliss, we got married and lived happily ever after!"

"How do turrets get married?" Kayla said flying down the stairs ahead of the group.

"I asked me if she wanted to be one flesh with me and she said yes," Ignatius said as he walked up behind her along with everyone else.

"That is usually not how marriages work with humans," Sylvie said as she mentally forced the elevator shaft doors to open. "You take a while to get to know the person first and then once you decide to get married, you have to prepare an elaborate ceremony where someone with power like a priest or someone with political authority marries you. Otherwise, you're just considered engaged. I would know because I'm going to get married soon. I have a fiancé."

"Oh wonderous bliss!" Rose said. "What a glorious blessing from above is love!"

"That's wonderful," Peppermint quickly said as she walked up to Sylvie. "Are you a virgin?!"

Sylvie and everyone else froze in absolute shock.

"Yes," Sylvie managed to mumble out.

"Are you pregnant with the Messiah?!" Peppermint asked very excitedly.

"No, love," Ignatius said very patiently. "That was only a one time occurrence that only occurred with the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Other virgins can't give birth to Jesus."

"Oh," Peppermint said. "That's right. I remember that now."

"This is going to be a long day," Kayla sighed. "These turrets are crazy, especially you, Pepper. You need to calm down."

"Do not suppress her spirit, man," Daffodil said. "That is so oppressive of you."

"Yeah, Kayla," Albina teased. "Stop oppressing her."

"I was not oppressing anybody," Kayla said defensively. "Anyways, I suppose we should get going."

"I agree," Jeffrey said. "Let's get moving."

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a bat to the amazement of the watching turrets and flew down the shaft ahead of everyone else. Kayla lifted Sylvie and the robots and flew behind him while Albina flew behind everyone else.

"Is it too late to ask you to just kill me?" Violet asked. "I figure that anything you do would be much less painful than what she would come up with."

"No," Kayla said. "Stop asking already!"


	37. Chapter 37

Chelsea picked up her jacket and her portal gun and exited the elevator. The doctor robot walked out closely just behind her.

"She has been taken care of, ma'am," the doctor robot said. "I'll be going back to the lab now."

"I see," GLaDOS said zooming in on Chelsea's hand. "Good work."

The robot turned to exit out of a side panel when GLaDOS spoke up again.

"You do realize that ever since the test subject escaped the first time that I have equipped all the new robots with transmitters to record everything they say and do," GLaDOS said. "In other words, I know everything that you said to her."

"Oh, God," the doctor robot said in fear. "Please, no!"

The doctor robot was then dismantled immediately. He fell into pieces on the floor and ceased living. Though she felt bad, Chelsea took the opportunity and knelt down on the floor next to where his body was so that she could retrieve medical supplies out of his pockets. She pulled his side compartments open and found the healing gel and the gauze wrap.

"I see that your scavenger instincts are still there," GLaDOS said.

"I told you," Chelsea said as she carried the gel and the gauze over to the stairs where she sat down. "I do what I have to in order to survive."

She then proceeded to rub the gel on her still burning left shoulder.

"You still didn't have to do that," Chelsea said angrily as she rubbed the gel in. "I was going to find out about their betrayal eventually."

"I suppose," GLaDOS said. "He still disobeyed me though, just like they did. Orange and Blue betrayed me and it broke my heart, but don't worry. I'll get back at both of them soon enough."

Chelsea said nothing but pulled the gauze wrap around her left shoulder. When she was done, she stood up, tied the jacket around her waist, put the portal gun on her right hand, and started walking up the stairs.

"I suppose I will have to write down that you treated an injury while testing which as you know is against protocol," GLaDOS said in annoyance. "I suppose that it is no big deal though. You are almost at the end anyways."

Chelsea said nothing and continued to walk up the stairs.

"Do you want to know something interesting?" GLaDOS said. "I blame their betrayal, well, Orange's betrayal specifically, on you. Ever since you arrived, he has never been the same. I can't explain it, but you have had an influence on him. Orange fell for you, and Blue fell for that blond woman. You have taken them away from me, so I'm going to have to get back at you both somehow for it."

"Are you sure that it was us who pushed them away from you?" Chelsea asked crossing her arms and looking at the camera while standing in place. "How do you know it wasn't that they were tired of your mistreatment? Maybe they were so touched when they finally encountered our kindness, they jumped at the chance to get away."

GLaDOS was silent for a second, and Chelsea continued to walk up the stairs in the meantime. She was about to reach the door when GLaDOS spoke up again.

"I will have to test this hypothesis in order to see if it's true of course, but I still believe that you have some sort of influence over others," GLaDOS said. "I'm not sure about what it is, but I know that it's there. I just can't explain it."

"I'm not sure about what you mean, GLaDOS," Chelsea said as she walked through the door to take her eighteenth test. "I don't have the ability to affect other people's minds like my Dad can as far as I know."

"Whatever the case may be," GLaDOS said coldly. "You just have one more test to solve after this one, and then you will get your free test tube dinner and your nine month vacation."

"As fun as that sounds, I will be declining your offer," Chelsea said sarcastically. "God will set me free."

"You know it's healthier to confront reality than to live in denial sparrow," GLaDOS said. "By the way, you seem more emotional than before. Have the anti-depressants worn off already?"

Chelsea rolled her eyes and walked into the room. When she walked in, she felt her heart sink in despair. There were lasers pointing in every direction and a small wall that divided this room from the next room. On that wall was a funnel and bouncing up and down in front of it was an energy pellet from a generator on the ceiling. Chelsea saw what she needed to do but she was exhausted and did not want to exert the effort. Chelsea had been suffering emotionally, but the mental and physical strain was finally beginning to take its toll on her as well. She was struggling to push herself on and had to rely on God for every last bit of strength.

"Why do you hate me?" Chelsea asked as she sighed.

"You know that I don't but it's sad that you think that way," GLaDOS said. "We are going to have to increase the dosage on your medication. In order to function here, we will need you to be detached from your emotions as much as possible. Your emotions seem to be driving you crazy and preventing you from thinking, so to enable you to concentrate, we shall be giving you more anti-depressants along with more ADHD medication to help you function. You will soon not feel the need to get distracted or feel at all. Won't that be nice?"

"You want to give me medication so that I can think and focus more easily, but you don't want me to think about anything that is bothering me at the same time?" Chelsea said. "I need to think but you don't want me to think. That's a paradox if I've ever heard one."

"Less talking, more testing please," GLaDOS said.

"You know," Chelsea said coming up with another idea and sitting down. "I really don't feel like testing. I'll just sit here until I do."

"You are not serious," GLaDOS said. "That's too bad then. I will just have to have another doctor robot come in here and give you your extra dose of medication now."

"You're the one who's not being serious," Chelsea said closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "If you really wanted to drug me, you wouldn't have killed that doctor robot."

Because of how far along in the tests she was, Chelsea was afraid that she was going to be done before her friends could catch up to her, so she figured that by stalling she would be able to give them the time to reach her.

"Alright, you can have it your way," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea sat for a several minutes in complete silence. By sitting down and doing nothing, she was beginning to get the rest she needed. As badly as she wanted to however, she could not allow herself to drift into unconsciousness. She had to keep up her energy until the moment she stepped out of the facility and for her, that felt so far away. Chelsea had to still escape and reluctantly kill GLaDOS. Those two goals felt undoable. It was beginning to feel like it was all she could do to stay awake.

"God, I cannot keep going like this," Chelsea prayed in her mind as her left hand stroked the beads around her neck. "Give me the strength I need because I can't do this anymore."

The next moment, Chelsea felt a cold, metal arm grab her right arm. She quickly opened her eyes, pulled his arm off of hers, and used her hard light to push the doctor robot away before he could inject the syringe that he was holding into a vein. Chelsea then created a disc under her feet and flew towards the ceiling before he could come back.

"I see that your reflexes have become faster," GLaDOS said. "Now, let's see those reflexes applied to testing. Of course, if you need more motivation, the doctor robot down there can inject you with more drugs. Your mind seems like it could use them."

"You suck," Chelsea said breathing hard as she felt the adrenaline pumping. "But I'll do it."

"Good, as added motivation, the doctor robot has been given permission to inject you if you are ever within his reach, so don't go near the ground if you can avoid it," GLaDOS said coldly. "If you don't like that, you could just kill him. You never had a problem doing it before."

The robot flinched in fear as Chelsea glared at the camera on the upper left corner of the wall and aimed her portal gun right at it. She wanted to destroy it so badly, but she figured that if she tried then GLaDOS would only send another electrical bolt her way. Chelsea moved her gun down and turned her attentions to the lasers.

"It seems that the conditioning is working," GLaDOS said. "You are beginning to be tamed."

Chelsea then impulsively came up with a quick plan. She aimed an orange portal on the ground where a laser was hitting the ground, flew out of the way, and fired a blue portal on the wall on the other side of the room in front of the camera. The camera was destroyed immediately and fell to the ground. Chelsea smiled in satisfaction at what she had done.

"How's that for tamed?" Chelsea said.

"Oh, dear, whatever shall I do?" GLaDOS asked sarcastically. "It's not like I have a robot who will let me see through his eye…Oh, wait…"

Chelsea looked at the test and quickly figured out what to do. She fired an orange portal on the back wall. Then she created a very large disc with her left hand, a disc that stretched the length of the entire room, and used that disc in order to push the lasers up towards the ceiling so that they would be out of her way. She knew that she had to act quickly, because even less than ten seconds of holding up the lasers was starting to strain her. Chelsea then lifted up her portal gun on her right arm and shot the blue portal underneath the high energy pellet. The pellet went through the portals and hit the receptor on the wall. A walkway then opened up on the other side of the dividing wall so that she could walk through to the next part of the test. Chelsea created a force field around her body, landed on the ground, and allowed the shield holding back all the lasers to dissolve. Thankfully, she was in a place where she was not being touched directly by the lasers, so she was able to sit down for a second and take a deep breath without having to resist the lasers.

"You have nine months' rest waiting for you, but I suppose that if you are really this tired we can let you take another nap," GLaDOS said.

Chelsea heard some knocking on her shield. She looked up and saw the doctor robot tapping on her shield and holding a syringe. Somehow, he had managed to walk around all of the lasers and reach her where she was. Chelsea quickly moved her bubble up into the air out of the robot's reach.

"So first you want me to focus, but now you want me to sleep?" Chelsea asked while breathing hard. "What's getting into you?"

"You don't look very good," GLaDOS said. "I've decided to let you take a nap until you feel better. Then you can finish testing later. I just want you to test at your best."

"That's not the reason," Chelsea said having a revelation as she was flying towards the doorway behind the wall. "My friends are catching up to me. Aren't they? You want me to let your robot sedate me so that I can be moved away quickly. Am I correct?"

GLaDOS felt a flash of panic. Chelsea had guessed correctly the reason for her sudden anxiousness. She had been checking around security cameras when she received an alert that came from the test chamber before this one and then checked and saw Sylvie's group coming. She was currently in the process of catching them, but she wanted Chelsea to be out of the area just in case they managed to get away from her. However, GLaDOS knew that she had to retain her composure so that Chelsea would not suspect anything and make her situation worse.

"What did you want to eat after this?" GLaDOS asked quickly in an attempt to get Chelsea's mind focused on something else. "Nectar? Ambrosia?"

"Very funny," Chelsea said flying through the doorway. "But I am not a nymph or a Greek goddess."

"I'm surprised that you understood that reference," GLaDOS said. "I thought that you would ignore all religions other than your own."

"No," Chelsea said smiling as she landed at the entrance of the other room. "I read books, so I know a lot about other viewpoints and philosophies and understand a decent amount about other religions. I just know which one is true."

"Then why bother learning about the others if you already know the truth?" GLaDOS asked.

"Unlike you, I want to understand other people and what they think," Chelsea said looking up at the camera on the wall. "It should come in handy, especially after we set all those people free. They will need to be understood."

Chelsea looked into the room and sighed in dismay. The next part of the test would be much trickier. What Chelsea saw before her was a narrow hallway. In the hallway was a pattern. For every portal wall that was there, there was a smashing spike plate right in front of it. The pattern continued: portal wall, plate, portal wall, plate, for as far as her eyes could see. Chelsea knew that she would just have to portal around all the spike plates that were in her path. That was simple enough, but she had to be sure of whether or not there was something else to it. She looked around and noticed a niche. In that niche was a laser redirection cube. She would have to carry it with her while portaling around all those spike plates. Again, that seemed easy enough, but the hard part would be keeping all the portals straight so she would keep moving forward. Chelsea mentally prepared herself as she walked to the niche to pick up the cube.

"Are you sure that you're not tired, sparrow?" GLaDOS asked. "Are you sure that you don't want to take a nap before finishing the test?"

Chelsea felt the cold metal arm grabbing her right arm once again, but she turned around and pushed the doctor robot off with her hard light before he could inject her with the syringe.

"Stay away from me," Chelsea said as she picked up the cube and ran towards the hallway. "I told you that I don't want to be put to sleep anymore!"

"Subjects did better on tests when they had a nap before finishing," GLaDOS said. "I'll give you the statistics if you don't believe me."

"I think you know better than to bullshit me," Chelsea said.

Chelsea then fired an orange portal on the wall beside her and then waited for the smashing spike plate to go up so that she could fire the blue portal. When the spike plate was up, she fired the blue portal on the other wall and quickly ran through the portals.

"You need to rest, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "Don't you feel tired?"

"No," Chelsea said. "I feel like finishing this test."

"I can tell you're tired, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "You're not going to make it much longer like that."

The doctor robot started running for the portal, but Chelsea fired an orange portal on the other side of the next smashing plates before the robot could reach it.

"I will do just fine," Chelsea said with a sly smile. "I can't promise you that I'll finish the test before my friends show up though."

"I don't know what you're talking about," GLaDOS said. "I'm just trying to help you."

"Yeah, right," Chelsea said. "I know better than to believe that."

"Believe whatever you want, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "But I really am just trying to help."

Chelsea then worked in silence and eventually made it to the other side of the all the smashing plates. She emerged from the last portal and sat against the wall for a second holding the cube on her lap.

"So you are tired," GLaDOS said. "You were lying before. That is not a very Christian thing to do."

"I'm not tired," Chelsea said standing up.

"Yes, you are," GLaDOS said. "I can see it."

"Moving me won't prevent my friends from getting to me," Chelsea said looking around the large room she was in. "Even if I were to comply, they would get to me eventually. Just accept the fact that your plan is going to fall apart. Your mission is unholy and God himself is working against you. You know that."

GLaDOS started playing Brahms' lullaby over the loudspeakers.

"I'm sorry," GLaDOS said. "I just remembered that I was supposed to be playing music to help you concentrate."

Chelsea sighed and said, "That is not going to work."

She looked around the room and saw the laser going horizontally across the room to her right. There was an energy funnel to her left, and she was sure that that was where the laser was meant to go.

Unfortunately however, that was when Chelsea felt the cold arm grab her right arm and finally succeed in injecting her before she could react. She dropped the cube and the portal gun as she felt her head go light.

"I told you to piss off!" Chelsea screamed as she pushed the robot across the room with hard light from both of her hands.

She then collapsed on her knees and said, "How many damn drugs are you going to put in me before you're finally satisfied?"

"I know that you don't like being knocked out like this, sparrow," GLaDOS said as the doctor robot walked up to her and closed the injection spot with a band aid. "But frankly, I don't care. I just need you out of the way for a little while. I promise that it won't take long this time. You will be asleep for about 15 minutes tops. I give you my word. Then we can finish testing without any distractions at all."

Chelsea wanted to send out a message, but all that she had time to do before she finally fell on the ground in unconsciousness was to send out the telepathic message, "Tell Sylvie to watch out."

Chelsea then fell on the ground in unconsciousness. The doctor robot picked her up in his arms, picked up the portal gun and placed it on her lap, and headed for the elevator door.

"Just lay her down so that she is leaning against the glass wall of the elevator," GLaDOS said. "Be careful with her. Drop her or bruise her and you will end up like your predecessor."

"Yes, ma'am," the doctor robot said fearfully.

"Also, don't forget to place the prototype video and audio transmitter that you are all supposed to have now," GLaDOS said.

"I won't, ma'am," the doctor robot said.

The doctor robot walked down the stairs and entered the elevator. He crouched down and placed Chelsea so that she was leaning against the left side of the elevator with the portal gun in her lap. Next, the doctor robot placed the transmitter on the wall that transmitted feed of the inside of the elevator to where GLaDOS was so that she could still see Chelsea when the elevator was not inside the test chamber. He then left the elevator, and the doors shut behind him. GLaDOS lowered the elevator so that it was at most 30 feet from the testing chamber and be out of the reach of Chelsea's friends when they arrived and left her alone.

"Alright," GLaDOS said. "She's safe so now I must deal with that other problem."

GLaDOS then turned her attention towards Sylvie's group. They had been running through the seventeenth test chamber when GLaDOS had randomly received an alert and checked it out. She was now trying to do everything in her power to keep her test subject guarded. Sylvie was running ahead in the front, P-Body and Atlas were running behind her, Kayla was carrying all of the turrets in the middle, Jeffrey was flying in the form of a falcon behind her, and Albina was flying behind the group freezing all the panels so that GLaDOS could not enclose them.

"What do you think you're doing?" GLaDOS asked Sylvie's group as they ran through the test chamber. "I'm not going to let you get to her."

"Shut your stupid mouth!" Kayla yelled as she telekinetically ripped the camera off the wall.

"That is not even possible, you freakish child," GLaDOS said looking from another camera. "Also, turrets, you all have betrayed your purpose and me. You like those other two traitor bots no longer have a purpose to live and will be killed at the soonest opportunity. As for you, Orange and Blue, I will make your deaths as horrifying as possible."

P-Body and Atlas looked at the camera in fear. The turrets shook in fear, too.

"I knew it," Violet said. "I was better off in the testing chamber."

"Shut up!" Kayla said ripping that camera off of the wall. "Leave them alone!"

"Stop listening to her, Kayla," Albina said flying up to her. "Let's go."

"Okay," Kayla said focusing her attention to moving herself and the other robots once again.

"I see that the stallion was not a traitor after all," GLaDOS said looking from yet another camera. "She has really missed you. Do you want to know how much she cried when you left?"

Jeffrey closed his eyes in pain at how he must have made Chelsea feel. He flew in place for a moment.

"Come on, Jeff," Kayla said pulling him telekinetically. "Chelsea's okay. I know her. She's strong."

"Yeah, she is," GLaDOS said. "She's much stronger than you are, you emotionally-unbalanced little lunatic."

"She's stronger than you are, too," Kayla yelled. "You psychotic, insane bitch!"

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" GLaDOS asked.

"My mother is in heaven," Kayla yelled, "But you can go straight to hell!"

"That explains so much," GLaDOS said. "Two of you are orphans."

Sylvie stopped at the door and tried opening it telepathically, but it wouldn't work.

"Sylvie, what is happening?" Albina asked.

"She won't let me open the door," Sylvie said. "I was afraid of this. I can't control her consciousness since it's human. Remember?"

"What are we going to do?" Alpha asked fearfully.

"You could all die," GLaDOS said turning off the lights.

The turrets began freaking out and all talking at once.

"Oh, what misfortune!" Rose said. "We are going to die before we see the sun!"

"This is so not cool," Daffodil said.

"I'll never see her again," Terry said sadly.

"Iggy, I love you!" Peppermint yelled.

"Pepper, I love you, too," Ignatius replied. "I have loved being your husband and now we shall both be in the house of God."

"Here we go," Violet said.

"Everyone needs to shut up!" Kayla yelled. "Nobody is dying today. Albina, tear down the ice. I'm busting us out of here."

"Alright," Albina said impressed at Kayla's commanding attitude.

With a wave of her hands, Albina had removed the ice from the walls. Kayla then got to work.

"Hang on everybody," Kayla said. "Things may get rocky."

Kayla then focused all of her energy and got her powers working harder. Using telekinesis, she pushed one tile out forcing it off its hinge and making it fall off of the box that it was attached to. Kayla did the same thing to all the tiles on the wall. The tiles each were blown away and fell towards the abyss. Eventually that wall fell away and the other three walls along with the ceiling were blown away. All this was done within the space of about a few minutes and Kayla was breathing hard by the end of it, but the work was done. The robots were all blown away.

"You are a force of nature," Rose said.

"I'm impressed, Kayla," Albina said. "Good work!"

"Thanks," Kayla said telekinetically picking up Sylvie and all of the robots. "Let's go!"

The group headed off of the side of the platform and flew down towards the next test chamber while GLaDOS surprisingly said nothing. This fact was not lost upon Albina or Sylvie.

"She's being silent," Albina said.

"Yeah, this is not good," Sylvie said.

"Maybe she's just blown away by how awesome that was like I am," Kayla said doing a somersault in the air.

"That is not likely," Albina said.

"Then, why is she acting so stunned?" Kayla asked.

"Well, whatever is going on we should move quickly before she changes her mind," Sylvie replied.

"I see the test chamber up ahead," Jeffrey said. "Let's go!"

Jeffrey then dived down in his falcon form for the test chamber. The others quickly followed after him, but they hardly could because of how fast he was moving. Jeffrey saw the testing chamber and dove knowing that just up ahead his Zelda was waiting for him. He wanted to make up for his failures before. The others realized this and had to call him out.

"Slow down, Jeffrey," Kayla yelled. "We are barely keeping up!"

"I can't," Jeffrey said. "I have to save Chelsea."

"All of us have to save Chelsea, Jeffrey," Albina said. "We have to work together or else we will fail. Slow down!"

Jeffrey realized that she was right. He stopped his diving and flew in place waiting for the others on top of the next testing chamber.

"I'm sorry, guys," Jeffrey said. "I guess I was carried away."

"It's alright, Jeff," Albina said as she finally reached him and flew in place in front of him. "We just need to work together. Okay? You need to rely on us, too. "

"Alright," Jeffrey said.

"Thanks for finally slowing down," Kayla said finally catching up to their level. "Now that we're all together, let's save Chelsea! Do your thing, Sylvie."

"Okay," Sylvie said crouching down. "Keep your eyes open. I have a feeling that GLaDOS is going to attack soon."

Sylvie put her hands on the roof of the building.

"What are you doing?" Kayla asked in confusion.

"I'm making sure that Chelsea is not in there, so we don't waste our time searching in an empty testing chamber," Sylvie said.

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense," Kayla said.

"Yes," Sylvie said placing her hands on the metal rooftop.

"If you can't stop GLaDOS since she has a human consciousness," Albina said crouching down next to Sylvie. "How are you going to track Chelsea down with the security cameras if she is controlling them?"

"I don't know," Sylvie said. "But, it is the only thing I know to do right now."

Sylvie turned her attentions to her work and attempted to get a visual through the cameras to see if she could find Chelsea. Remarkably, she was able to see with the cameras inside the chamber. However, the results were a negative. There was no sign of Chelsea anywhere. Meanwhile, Jeffrey had shapeshifted back into human form and was standing on the side of the testing chamber and looking over the side.

"The good news is that I could see in there," Sylvie said looking up. "But the bad news is that Chelsea is not there."

"That's okay," Kayla said trying to be optimistic. "Let's go to the next testing chamber. She'll probably be there."

"It's not that simple," Sylvie said getting on her feet. "I think GLaDOS moved her."

"What?" Kayla said.

"What do you mean?" Albina asked.

Jeffrey looked down at the elevator shaft and suddenly noticed that the elevator was stuck in place.

"The test is not finished," Sylvie said. "If Chelsea had finished the test, there would be nothing left to be done, but there is a cube sitting in the room and a laser that was clearly meant to be directed towards a funnel to open a door. GLaDOS must have moved Chelsea because she saw us coming."

He jumped off the edge, shapeshifted into a bat, and flew to the elevator.

"So, what do we do now?" Kayla asked. "We don't know where she could be."

"There's nothing left to do but go to GLaDOS and force her to give up Chelsea," Albina said.

"I'm down with that," Kayla said smiling.

Jeffrey flew in place in front of the elevator looking at Chelsea inside who was beginning to stir.

"Guys, I found Chelsea!" Jeffrey yelled back to the others.

Unfortunately, that was when GLaDOS activated her trap. The panels on the ground opened up causing all of them to fall through except Kayla. For her, GLaDOS pushed her down with a panel before she was sure what was happening. They all landed in a box that then had a hard light bridge on top of it sealing the entrance. The three ladies and all the robots were now trapped in the box together. The panels of the room came apart and GLaDOS started moving the box to the right and over the expanse along rails that seem to have come out of nowhere. The group of turrets huddled together in fear while Atlas and P-Body stayed calm and the ladies tried to find their bearings.

"Finally, I have all of you gathered in one place…" GLaDOS said just before noticing Jeffrey's absence. "Wait a second! Where is the shapeshifter?"

"We ain't telling, GLaD Ass!" Kayla said. "Now, let us out before I break the glass! You know I can and I will!"

"I'd like to see you try, cripple," GLaDOS said.

"Don't mind if I do," Kayla said starting to push telekinetically on the walls.

The moment she did however the box lit up with hard light beams.

"What?" Kayla said in surprise.

"The glass like the ceiling is being reinforced by hard light beams," GLaDOS said. "As I have discovered, it is my test subject's main weakness."

"Crap," Kayla said fearfully.

Albina stood up and immediately started to freeze the corners of the wall in an effort to break the frame as the box kept moving forward.

"It's not working," Albina said as she did her best to retain her composure in the scary situation they were in.

"We're all going to die," Violet said while walking away from the group of turrets and staring at the ground beneath them. "It's just like I said."

"No, we are not," Sylvie said hearing the thoughts of fear in the minds of all the robots. "We are going to live. Just let me handle this."

"Wait a second," Kayla said. "What is Terry doing?"

As the box continued to move into the open space outside of the testing chamber, Terry, remembering where Jeffrey's voice was coming from, had walked to the left wall to see where Chelsea was. He had seen her and started to play the song that Chelsea had sung in the testing chamber, "Tomoni" by KOKIA.

"He's playing Chelsea's song," Sylvie said as the group of women walked towards the left wall.

"That's right," Albina said remembering and flying upwards as close to the ceiling as she could to get a better view. "I see Chelsea down there in the elevator and Jeffrey, too! She's unconscious. Chelsea! Chelsea!"

Kayla flew up beside her and started yelling, too.

"Chelsea, wake up!" Kayla yelled. "Wake up!"

"She's under the influence of sedatives," GLaDOS said coldly. "She won't be awake until long after I have moved you to where you need to go."

"Where might that be?" Sylvie asked.

"You'll see," GLaDOS said maliciously.

Down in the elevator, Chelsea woke up and saw a bat flying outside the elevator she was in. She knew immediately who it was.

"Jeffrey?" Chelsea asked as she blinked her eyes.

"Yes, Chelsea," Jeffrey said calmly. "I'm here!"

Just then, she heard the music and quickly stood up.

"Terry?" Chelsea asked as she quickly pushed the portal gun aside, stood up, and walked to the side of the elevator to get a better look.

"We're up here!" Terry yelled as he stopped playing his music. "Look up here!"

"Who are you talking to?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea saw the box, her eyes filled with tears, and she yelled, "GUYS! I'M DOWN HERE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

GLaDOS stopped the box in shock.

"How are you awake?!" GLaDOS yelled as she looked at her through the camera on the wall inside the elevator. "That medicine should have kept you under for at least ten more minutes. It seems that you are building immunity to the sedatives."

"Chelsea! We're up here!" Kayla yelled. "Sylvie, Albina, and I are here with a bunch of robots! GLaDOS trapped us in this box, but don't worry! We'll be alright!"

"How are you?!" Albina yelled.

"I'm covered with numerous bandages from injections, a big scar from where she branded me, numerous surgical scars are over my body, two burns, and I'm sure that I have more psychological scars than I can count, but believe it or not, I'm feeling fantastic now that everyone's here," Chelsea said with more tears coming down her face than before. "You don't know how happy I am to hear you all!"

"Really?" GLaDOS said skeptically. "You're happy to hear them, these people who have kept you waiting for about a month? That surprises me considering the fact that you have considered or attempted suicide four times already."

"You considered suicide?!" Sylvie said in shock.

"No," Chelsea said. "I only considered it once!"

Then as she realized what had come out of her mouth, she face palmed and said, "Shit! I'm sorry, guys! I really am."

"It's our fault, Chelsea," Kayla yelled. "We should have been here sooner!"

"I'm sorry for your suffering, Chelsea," Albina yelled. "We did the best we could and we are glad that you were able to hold out for us. We cannot change what happened in the past though, so for now, we need to focus on making our futures better and escaping. Can you get out of where you are, Chelsea?!"

"I can try," Chelsea said creating a disc with her right hand and cutting it against the glass causing the hard light shields to come up. "But whenever I do, this happens."

"It is the same for us," Albina yelled. "It would appear that we are in a similar predicament and I'm not sure how long she is going to let us continue to talk like this!"

"Do you have any ideas for what to do?!" Kayla yelled.

Before Chelsea could respond, Sylvie said, "Don't worry! I will break the machine!"

Sylvie focused all of her mental energies on where the hard light bridges were coming from once again. She zeroed in on it and was close to breaking it. However at that moment, Sylvie lost consciousness. She fell backwards and was caught by Atlas who held her up in his arms as he crouched to the ground. As the robots and the two other ladies gathered around, Sylvie was staring forward in an unblinking stare and started foaming at the edges of her mouth and shaking like she was having a seizure.

"Sylvie?!" Kayla yelled as she flew over her. "Sylvie, wake up! Sylvie!"

"Is she possessed by a demon?" Peppermint asked Ignatius.

"Go away in the name of Jesus," Ignatius proclaimed.

When it didn't work, he said, "We can rule that out."

"She is not possessed!" Albina said in fear as she pushed through them all, crouched down, and held Sylvie's hand to see if she could get any response. "She is having a seizure! Sylvie?! Can you hear us at all? Sylvie?!"

"Oh, God, no," Alpha said out loud.

Chelsea had seen Sylvie fall and yelled, "What's happening?!"

"We don't know!" Kayla yelled. "Sylvie just fell over and looks like she's in a trance and having a seizure or something. We can't wake her up!"

"GLaDOS!" Chelsea yelled. "What have you done?!"

"I'm glad you asked," GLaDOS said calmly. "You see, I was having a very difficult time with her destroying my video cameras and destroying things around the facility, so I decided to do something about it and did some research into hacking protection programs. You see, a long time ago, Aperture Science had many anti-hacking devices installed on their computers to defend them against their competitors. One of these programs would send a jamming signal to whatever device was trying to hack it, causing said device to effectively freeze up. It was a great program so I decided to adapt it to the hard light generator to deal with this troublesome telepath. I had never tested it out before, so this result is very interesting. We now have a French woman with a jammed signal in her brain. I suppose that she could die if she is left like that too long. That takes care of one problem anyway."

Atlas hugged Sylvie closer to himself and looked down in despair. P-Body stood up, ran to the wall, and jumped up and down attempting to break the seal on the generator though deep down he knew it was useless. Everyone was momentarily shocked in despair, even Albina.

"Turn it off now!" Chelsea yelled banging on the side of the elevator.

"I don't think I will," GLaDOS said. "I have caught a bunch of problems at one time, and after I collect enough samples of their DNA for clones, I will dispose of them."

"Over my dead body, GLaD Ass!" Kayla yelled shaking everyone else out of their shock and holding up P-Body and herself up telekinetically so that they could reach the ceiling of the box. "You won't take me alive!"

"That's what I'm counting on," GLaDOS said as she made the box start moving again. "With the telepath out, this should be much easier."

"No!" Chelsea screamed. "You aren't taking my friends away! Kayla! Albina!"

"Chelsea!" Albina yelled still trying to maintain her composure through tears as she was praying in her mind for an idea and flying up so that she could see her. "Don't worry. Whatever happens to us, be strong and don't give up ever. You will get through this, because no matter how bleak the situation seems, God is still there. Remember that always. We love you."

Chelsea paused in fear at what Albina had said. She knew the significance of those words. They were roughly the last words that her mother had said to her before she died.

"I'll go after them," Jeffrey said as he flew for them.

"No offense, sparrow and stallion, but neither of you are going to be much help," GLaDOS said harshly. "I can electrocute the bat and as for you sparrow, you're locked in a cage. Say goodbye to your friends. To be completely honest, you probably will never see them again."

"NO!" Chelsea yelled as she created discs in her hands and struck them against the walls of her elevator prison so that the hard light came up on the inside. "I AM NOT LETTING YOU TAKE THEM AWAY!"

Chelsea knew that she had to absorb the hard light or die trying. If she didn't try, her friends would die. So Chelsea put both her hands on the hard light and created two discs that would mix into the particles of the hard light in front of her.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked.

Chelsea took a deep breath and did her work. She reabsorbed not only her particles but the particles in the elevator and elevator shaft as well. She screamed in shock at all the energy flowing through her body. Her skin turned light blue and emitted a light that shone throughout her entire body so that her clothes were hardly visible. Her hair, her skin, her clothes, and everything else was as blue as the hard light. She looked like a creature engulfed in pure hard light. She then collapsed against the back of the elevator in unconsciousness. GLaDOS stopped the box in shock.

"What the hell just happened?" GLaDOS asked in a panic. "Is she dead?"

Jeffrey flew back to the elevator and started yelling for Chelsea.

"Chelsea?!" Jeffrey asked. "Chelsea?!"

Kayla and Albina watched as Chelsea was glowing in her cell. The oracle turret walked up behind them to join them.

"What is happening?" Kayla asked.

"The phoenix has arisen," the oracle turret said.

Chelsea regained consciousness and stood up in the elevator. She noticed that she was glowing in an almost heavenly light. In spite of her appearance, she felt really good. The light in her body was a huge boost in energy. Chelsea now felt like she could fight the world.

"Are you alright?" Jeffrey asked. "Do you feel okay?"

"Actually, I feel amazing," Chelsea said looking at herself and her body. "I wonder…"

She quickly created two hard discs and cut a hole in the elevator. She then rubbed her right arm against the sharp edge of the broken glass.

"Chelsea, what are you doing?!" Jeffrey yelled.

Chelsea looked at her right arm and there were no scratches or bleeding to be found.

"It's just as I thought," Chelsea said. "The hard light is now in my skin and with it on, I can't be injured by anything."

Chelsea turned and looked at the camera in the elevator and said, "You know what that means. Don't you, GLaDOS?"

GLaDOS said nothing so Chelsea answered for her.

"I can't be penetrated by anything while I'm like this, not even by a syringe," Chelsea said smiling. "You can't put me to sleep anymore. You can't impregnate me either. That plan is officially over for you. How do you like them apples?"

Everyone jumped as they heard a slow clap over the intercom.

"Well done, sparrow," GLaDOS said menacingly. "By the grace of your God, you have been able to somehow evolve and somehow outdo me. This is an interesting discovery indeed. However, you're right. With the gas out of commission and you in that state, you cannot be put to sleep to be properly impregnated and the experiment is over. I have no use for you anymore. I have wasted all my time with you for absolutely nothing. You have no idea how hard you have made me work. When you were unconscious, I had to exert a great deal of effort just to keep you from dying, but you were much less annoying. Then when you were awake, you would not shut up or stop trying to escape. Either way, the findings were interesting, but you were a huge pain. Needless to say, you have driven me crazy. You have been the most difficult test subject that I have ever had the displeasure of working with, and I will not be sad to see you go."

"I don't think you mean all of that," Chelsea said crossing her arms. "I think in some way that you have enjoyed spending time with me. I have made you think and care about me, in the same way that you care about my mother. In an odd way, I care about you, too. Just release us, and we will be on our way."

"You and I both know that that is not how it's going to end," GLaDOS said coldly yet remarkably calmly. "You have wasted my time and now, I'm going to do my best to waste you. Then when you're all good and dead, I'll kill your friends and your mother. Then I'll get to work on some clones. How does that sound?"

"God is on my side, GLaDOS," Chelsea said unfolding her arms. "I'm not going to die, but you will. You need to say your prayers and get repenting because for you the end is near. Since you won't stop hurting others, we have no choice but to kill you."

"How adorable!" GLaDOS said sarcastically. "You still want to kill me while saving my soul. That makes sense."

"I'm telling you the truth, Caroline," Chelsea said. "It is not too late for you. You know that and I wish you would see reason. I used to hate you so much, but now, I don't have it in me to do it anymore. I don't want to have to kill you. Just repent! You can be free if you just do it."

"How many times do I have to tell you to shut up?!" GLaDOS said losing her composure for a second. "I control my own life. I don't need his help! As for you however, you can just die."

The elevator then started falling very quickly towards the ground. Chelsea fell towards the top and frantically tried busting herself out, but Kayla caught the elevator telekinetically before it had fallen too far.

"You ain't hurting my sister, GLaD Ass!" Kayla screamed. "Get out of there, Chelsea!"

"Be quiet, you quadriplegic cripple," GLaDOS said.

She started moving the box back and forth very quickly in an effort to break Kayla's concentration, shaking all of the inhabitants of the box. Kayla was bumped around, but she kept her focus. She suddenly felt cold arms wrap around her body. Kayla opened her eyes and saw that it was Albina who was freezing her feet and the feet of the turrets and robots in place so that they would not move.

"I've got you," Albina said calmly. "Just keep holding up the elevator. I won't let you get hurt."

"Thanks," Kayla said smiling.

"Atlas," Albina said looking at the robot who was still holding Sylvie in his arms. "Do not let her go. You hear me?"

Atlas nodded in understanding and held Sylvie close to himself.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey flew in place feeling helpless.

"Stop it, GLaDOS!" Chelsea screamed as she stood up in the elevator.

She then commenced breaking out of the elevator. Chelsea created two large discs that cut through the elevator breaking it in half and causing the bottom half to immediately fall towards the floor. She then used another disc to saw through the glass tube of the elevator and flew out of the shaft. It took her a second to realize that she was flying without the use of a disc on her feet. By controlling the hard light in her body, she could hold herself up and fly.

"Woah," Chelsea said to herself. "I guess that's another side effect."

"Are you alright?" Jeffrey asked as he flew up to her.

"I don't know," Chelsea said. "But I will have to find out later."

Chelsea yelled, "Kayla, let go of the elevator! I'm out!"

"Alright," Kayla said dropping the elevator to the floor.

"GLaDOS, stop it!" Chelsea yelled. "I'm free now! There's no point!"

"I suppose there isn't," GLaDOS said stopping the shaking.

The box came to a stop on the rails. Chelsea landed on the box, and Jeffrey flew next to her. She looked down at Sylvie in the box and saw Sylvie unconscious and having a seizure. She knew that she didn't have long.

"Let them go or I'll do it myself," Chelsea said.

"Why should I?" GLaDOS asked. "Think of all the hard light exposure experiments that I could do with them."

"You're just digging your grave deeper," Chelsea said in a tone that was oddly sad as she ran to the edge of the box. "It's so tragic."

"You can't save me, sparrow," GLaDOS said in an ironic tone. "I have to want to be saved."

"You're right," Chelsea said in acceptance as she created a giant spinning disc to cut through the rims of the box and set it on the box's edges. "I have no choice but to kill you to save everybody else because you won't change. That makes this much less complicated for me."

"Chelsea, stop being philosophical and open the damn box already!" Kayla yelled flying out of Albina's grip. "Sylvie's dying!"

"Alright, Kayla!" Chelsea yelled back. "Don't worry! I'm doing it!"

"It'll be okay, Kayla," Albina yelled dissolving all the ice and giving Kayla a hug. "She's got this! You don't have to freak out at her."

Chelsea cut through the rims and stopped the hard light from being generated. The hard light disappeared, and Sylvie stopped having a seizure and began to wake up. Atlas noticed this and chirped at her right away to ask if she was alright.

"Atlas, what happened?" Sylvie asked.

Atlas chirped in response as P-Body, Albina, Kayla, and all the other turrets except Violet crowded around her.

"I was doing what now?" Sylvie asked as she sat up and wiped the foam from the corners of her mouth. "How did that happen?"

"GLaDOS jammed your brain with a signal," Albina said crouching down next to her and looking up. "Chelsea has cut through the box in the hard light generator that was sending the signal to your brain."

Sylvie looked up in amazement at Chelsea who was glowing in blue light.

"Don't worry, guys," Chelsea said. "I'm busting you out of there!"

"That won't be happening," GLaDOS said. "You might not be vulnerable anymore, but your friends are and I have just the thing for them. Just stand there and wait. It will be an electrifying experience for everyone."

Volts of electricity started moving down the railing towards them on both sides, but Chelsea stood her ground as the box under her started to move.

"Hold on, guys!" Kayla yelled as she pulled the box off of the rails with her mind.

Kayla lifted the box off of the rails and hovered it in mid-air as she flew in the middle of the box.

"Quick, where do I go?!" Kayla asked.

"Go down all the way!" Sylvie yelled.

"We'll be at the bottom of the facility!"

"It's okay! Just do it!"

"Alright!"

"Look out!"

Kayla looked and just moved the box out of the way before test chambers smashed into it. She looked down at the ground and just let the box fall as she held everyone within in the center telekinetically.

"Kayla, what are you doing?" Albina yelled. "We're all going to die with the box bouncing around like this!"

"No, you won't," Chelsea said. "I've got you!"

Chelsea then flew upwards and created a really large shield of light around herself and the box as it went down. Jeffrey shapeshifted into a snail so that he would stick to the box.

"Goodbye, GLaDOS!" Chelsea yelled towards the ceiling as she and the box continued to fall out of sight. "The next time we meet, it won't be on friendly terms! Think about what I said and save yourself before it is too late!"

The group then disappeared out of GLaDOS' sight as they headed towards the very bottom of the facility. Sylvie looked upon Chelsea in wonder as they fell towards the ground.

"What is wrong with her?" Sylvie asked. "Why is she glowing?"

"She absorbed the hard light that was keeping her in her cage and turned into that," Albina said.

After a moment of silence, Sylvie asked, "Do you think she ever be able to turn back or is she going to be like that forever?"

"I don't know, but I don't think that God would let her turn into that if it was only going to affect her for the worst," Albina said smiling. "She's going to be fine."

"She was the phoenix from the prediction," Terry said happily. "Isn't she beautiful?"

"Yeah," Sylvie said looking up at her and reflecting on how strong Chelsea had been since the whole ordeal began and how she was still strong in spite of all her suffering. "She is."

GLaDOS continued to try to drop the test chamber boxes on top of them, but the debris kept falling around the box and around Chelsea because of the shield around them. It was no use. Their group fell deeper into the abyss towards the bottom, out of the reach of GLaDOS.


	38. Chapter 38

"I can see the bottom, Kayla," Chelsea said. "Slow the box down! Move it to the tiled floor over there so that the robots won't short circuit."

"Okay," Kayla yelled as she caught the box and lowered it down to the bottom with her mind.

The group had officially made it to the oldest part of the facility, the very bottom where Chell had once gone. Kayla landed the box on a tiled floor as Chelsea dissolved her shield and Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a human. The area they were in was in ruins just as Chell had described it. The discarded parts of the previous testing chambers were all around them. There was water on the ground and dilapidated ruins of the facility all around as well. The box was on a tiled floor that rose slightly above the wet ground next to a wall with a door that led to who knows where.

"Alright," Kayla said. "We've landed, everyone. Just wait a second, and I'll break the glass."

"Move the pieces far away, so those of us with bare feet don't get cut," Albina said.

"Will do," Kayla said trying to be patient and not get annoyed by Albina stating the obvious.

Kayla broke the glass of the panel in front of her telekinetically and moved the pieces about a hundred yards before letting them drop so that no one would get cut. Everyone then moved out of the box onto the tiled platform. Jeffrey shapeshifted into a black cat so that he could jump off the box and land on his feet without getting hurt. At the bottom, he turned back into a human and looked up. To his surprise, Chelsea had not followed him.

"What are you doing, Chelsea?" Jeffrey asked.

"I'm staying up here until I figure out how to turn off the radiation in my skin," Chelsea said pacing around. "I don't want to unintentionally spread radiation to anyone else. Now, I have to focus. Crap! How do I turn this off? How do Hugo and Pastor Roberts do it?"

"Grandpa just relaxes and turns it off that way," Kayla said flying up to where she was. "Don't worry, Chelsea. You can do the same thing. Just relax and focus on turning it off."

"Okay," Chelsea said standing still. "I'll try."

She closed her eyes and breathed in and out. Chelsea focused on turning off her skin shield and tried to dissolve it like she did with her discs normally. Surely enough, it worked. The hard light dissolved away from her legs, from her torso, from her arms, and then from her head. In less than a minute, Chelsea was completely back to normal.

"I did it," Chelsea said tiredly.

At that moment, she was assaulted by Kayla who flew into her arms.

"Chelsea, I've missed you so much!" Kayla said as Chelsea wrapped her arms around her in a tender hug.

Albina flew up pulling Sylvie behind her onto the box.

"I've missed you too, sis," Albina said as she landed and ran in joining the hug.

"As have I," Sylvie said running into the hug.

"I'm so happy to be back with you guys," Chelsea said soaking in the love that she felt from them. "I've missed you all!"

The four of them hugged in a moment of silence as the robots watched on with Jeffrey.

"You really have lose weight," Albina said. "I can feel your ribs."

The four then finished hugging and stepped back.

"Chelsea, I have to tell you," Sylvie said. "Hugo and I are engaged, and we want you to be the maid of honor in our wedding."

"What about my Mom?" Chelsea asked. "You two are best friends."

"She's going to be the matron of honor," Sylvie said. "So, I will technically have two but whatever."

"That's cool then," Chelsea said with a smile. "I accept."

"Oh, shit," Kayla yelled flying back suddenly noticing her scar. "Is that the brand?!"

The other two stepped back and looked at the brand on her left shoulder that was in the shape of Aperture Science's logo.

"Does it hurt, Chelsea?" Kayla asked in concern.

"No," Chelsea said with a sad smile. "I was unconscious when she gave it to me, so when Jeffrey woke me up, it took me a while to even notice it was there."

"That monster," Sylvie said angrily holding her left arm out. "Look at your arms! They are all covered in scratches from the dissection. She has treated you so horribly. I'm so sorry."

Sylvie gave her a hug again, and Chelsea found that she was unable to respond. There was something else on her mind, but she didn't know if now would be the right time to talk about it without giving into tears. Albina noticed her facial expression and decided that she needed to act.

"What are these bandages for?" Sylvie asked as she let go of hugging her again.

"A laser burned me here," Chelsea said gesturing to her left shoulder and then gesturing towards her bandaged hand. "Then when I tried to destroy her surveillance camera in a fit of rage, she sent out an electrical bolt and zapped my hand."

"Wow, I didn't realize she was hurting you that much," Kayla said in shock. "I'm sorry we didn't get here sooner."

"That's not what's bothering you though," Albina said crossing her arms as they all looked at her. "Is it? Chelsea, you are my closest friend, and I know when there is something on your mind. Tell me. What is it really that is bothering you?"

Chelsea sighed as a few tears came to her eyes and said, "Guys, I want to help you fight the Combines and free all the people who are imprisoned, but I just want to know one thing. Do you promise to stay my friends for the rest of my life? You really are my family, not just in Christ, but in my spirit. The love I feel right now is so wonderful. I don't want to lose it for any reason ever."

"What a strange thing to say at a time like this," Kayla said. "I love you, Chelsea, even if you are random and strange at times. What brought this up?"

"When I was with GLaDOS, she told me that most friendships don't last and that once the world was back in order you would drop me because you didn't need me anymore," Chelsea said shedding some more tears in a tone that was trying to remain calm. "I didn't want to believe it. When I was with her, I was so alone. I wanted to die. It felt like hell. I just. I just never want to feel that ever again. My mom was right. It felt so awful! But at the same time, I know that the world will change. I don't want you to feel like you have to stick around for my sake, but at the same, I just want to always have you in my life. I need you, and I just never want to be alone."

"Chelsea, that robot's a bitch," Kayla said. "You don't have to listen to what she says. It's not true anyways."

"It's not?" Chelsea asked.

"No," Sylvie said. "It's not. The people who will drop you when you become inconvenient were never really your friends to begin with. I learned that the hard way in elementary school. But anyways, true friends even if they have to go away for a time will always be there for you because you are bonded in the heart. That is what my mother told me, and now, I know it's true. We don't see you as someone we can drop."

"Yeah, if we did, we wouldn't have busted in here to save you," Kayla said.

"I suppose that's true," Chelsea said with a smile.

"Besides that, Chelsea, for me and Sylvie and Hugo, you and your parents are the only real family we have," Albina said. "Without you, we have almost nobody. In Christ, we are also a reconstituted family anyway. In other words, you are never getting rid of us."

"Even after we defeat the Combines?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes, we will hang around and figure out life together," Albina said.

"You don't want to go back to Russia?" Chelsea asked looking Albina and then to Sylvie. "Or to France?"

"Chelsea, we are orphans," Sylvie said. "We might go back to our home countries for a visit, but there is nothing there for us anymore. We have nothing to go back to."

"You don't want to go back to Russia either, Albina?" Chelsea asked Albina.

"I might go back to see what's left of my old home and collect anything that's left, but there's nothing there for me anymore either," Albina said. "My family's all gone, and my biological family was useless to begin with, so I don't have a reason to stay. Also, Russia may be cold and beautiful, but it's not been the best place to live historically. The Russian culture has a history of mistreating people like myself and choosing bad leaders. Just look at Lenin, Stalin, Putin, et cetera. I don't want to live there again and be alone when I have people who love me right here. Besides that, mutants have a hard time in the world. It would be best if we stay together."

"What about you, Sylvie?" Chelsea asked Sylvie. "You think your parents are dead, but you don't know for sure. What if they're alive? Wouldn't you go back to them?"

"You could come with me if I did, Chelsea," Sylvie said. "You have always wanted to travel the world anyway, right? Besides, if they are alive, I would go to them, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I would stay with them all the time. You're my sister, too. I would still make time for you."

"I suppose that's true, too," Chelsea said.

"Even if it were the case that we have to separate, Chelsea, I would make sure that we always had a way to talk to each other from far away at least once a week," Sylvie said holding Chelsea's left hand. "I'll recreate Skype just to make it happen."

"I'll do the same, Chelsea," Jeffrey said calling out from below.

"I can live with that," Chelsea said with a smile but then took her hand out of Sylvie's before continuing. "But if we kill all the aliens and the world changes, how do you know that you will all still want to…"

Albina wrapped the pinky of her right hand around the pinky of Chelsea's right hand. The two of them understood this sign very well.

One night when Albina was a little girl of seven, she came into Chelsea's room to sleep with her because she was having nightmares. With the thunderstorm raging outside, Albina was more frightened than usual. Chelsea got up to go use the bathroom, but Albina still feeling scared wrapped her arms around her to show her that she did not want her to leave.

"It's okay, Albina," Chelsea said slightly annoyed and tiredly. "I'm just going to the bathroom, and I will be right back."

"Do not go away," Albina said in broken English not understanding exactly what Chelsea was saying. "Y might not come back. I not want to be alone again."

Chelsea compassionately took Albina's right pinky and her right pinky together to form a pinky swear.

"Albina, do you see this?" Chelsea said. "It is a pinky swear. It is what Americans do when they make promises. I promise that I will come back for you no matter what, okay? You are my friend and my sister now. You don't have to worry about me leaving you. I will never abandon you, alright?"

Albina understood enough of what she was saying for a tear to come to her eyes. She gave Chelsea a huge hug and allowed her to go on her way.

Albina always remembered this promise of love and used it in the present with Chelsea.

"I will never abandon you, alright?" Albina said with a smile.

Chelsea smiled as the tears began flowing down her face uncontrollably. She reached over and gave Albina a huge hug which she accepted. Chelsea then continued crying uncontrollably as all the emotion and that she had felt inside was finally coming to light. She had been so scared and so isolated and had to hold it all in, but now, she was free and could express whatever she wanted.

Kayla, who was surprised at how much emotion she was expressing since she had never seen her cry that much in her life, said, "Chelsea? Chelsea, you don't need to…"

Albina held up her left hand to signal to Kayla to stop.

"Leave her alone, Kayla," Albina said. "She needs to let out her emotions. It's okay. Just let her be."

"Okay," Kayla said flying in place.

Albina held Chelsea as she cried both in relief to know that she had true, lifelong friends and in pain at her previous isolation. Albina felt guilt for not getting to her sooner, but she knew that Chelsea was not crying to make her feel bad. She was crying because she wanted someone she knew loved her to know how she was feeling like Albina had long ago.

In the background, Atlas and P-Body looked at each other and at the ground feeling guilt for the part that they had played in it.

Meanwhile in the back of the crowd of turrets, Violet looked on the scene with a critical eye.

"So, that's what a human looks like when they cry," Violet said unemotionally. "Pathetic."

"Dude, like what is your problem?" Daffodil asked as she turned to her. "You are oppressing her by not allowing her freedom of expression."

"What sweet sorrow those tears doth express," Rose said. "Yet what relief they seem to bring. It is a pity that we cannot shed tears as we are only machines."

"Yeah, what a pity!" Violet said sarcastically as she turned and walked away from the group.

Violet walked off the platform that they were standing on and into the water that reached maybe an inch onto her legs. Violet then wandered off by herself into the desolate underground wasteland that was the old Aperture Science facility.

Meanwhile after a few minutes, Chelsea stopped crying and lifted her head off of Albina's shoulder.

Rubbing her eyes off with her hands, Chelsea said, "Thanks, guys! You really are the best friends and family that I could have ever asked for. Now, Sylvie, could we find a bathroom? I really have to go."


	39. Chapter 39

Meanwhile back in GLaDOS's chamber, she was hanging in frustration and anger. She was unsure of what to do. Her main test subject had escaped, and with her gone, there was very little that she could do to stop them from doing whatever they wanted.

GLaDOS felt angry not only because she had failed to stop her test subject but also because she felt betrayed. She really had started to like her test subject yet her sparrow had abandoned her just like Chell and everyone else had. GLaDOS was hurt and wanted to act out on her pain. She needed to think of a plan to both protect herself and get her revenge.

As she was thinking however, something strange happened. The room went dark around her, and the only light that was coming through was the light of her eye. GLaDOS tried time and time again to turn the equipment around her back on but to no avail.

"What is going on?" GLaDOS asked herself in fear as she looked around for a solution.

"Hello, GLaDOS," a voice said that sounded calm but strong.

GLaDOS turned around and immediately beheld a glowing mist that filled her chamber. The orb that the mist was proceeding from was right in front of her face. It had no facial features or anything that resembled a mouth, but GLaDOS guessed that that was where the voice came from.

"What are you?" GLaDOS asked looking straight at the mist. "What is going on?"

"I think we both know the answer to that now," the voice said. "I am that I am."

GLaDOS upon immediately realizing what he meant said, "Oh, my God!"

"Exactly," the mist said in a tone that was slightly amused.

"This is not happening," GLaDOS said turning away. "I am hallucinating right now. That girl has driven me insane."

The orb appeared in front of her face immediately and said, "You and I both know that robots are not susceptible to hallucinations like humans are. Your minds aren't as vulnerable after all. I should know."

"Leave me alone," GLaDOS said turning away once again.

The orb teleported in front of her face once again and said, "Leaving you and this place alone is precisely what I have done for a long time. I allowed this place time to change when it was in its prime, when it went bankrupt, when they sold their souls for the pursuit of 'science,' whatever they thought that was…"

The mist around her manifested into images of scientists and clipboards. The mist showed a group of scientists watching on another mist figure of a man shooting a portal gun on a platform and then falling to his doom.

"I also watched as they destroyed Caroline for the sake of creating you," the orb said.

The mist then manifested into the image of a group of scientists forcefully pushing a woman in a dress down a hall.

"I am not hearing or seeing this," GLaDOS said turning away again in panic. "This is not happening."

"I have left you alone in everything that happened up until now, too," the orb said teleporting in front of her once again with the mist again forming images to correspond with what he was saying. "You murdered the scientists and their girls, you tortured Doug Rattmann to the brink of insanity, you killed countless numbers of innocent people, you tormented Chell and the other robots, and you hurt my daughter, Chelsea, along with my other children. I have given you chance after chance to change and you have refused every single time. I am done waiting, GLaDOS. It is time for a change, and change is coming whether you like it or not."

"All I have done is pursue science," GLaDOS said coldly. "Is that so wrong?"

"Is that really what you've been doing all this time?" the orb said circling around her as she was following him with her gaze. "Is that really what they were doing? If you were to be completely honest with me, you would say that you are lying to yourself. Wouldn't you? I am not against science, GLaDOS. I never have been. I have always wanted my children to discover the wonders of the world I made and use those discoveries to better their lives. Some of my children who were scientists and other scientists have done just that. However, most of what they did here wasn't science. Mostly what you and everyone here did was pursue your morbid curiosity to the nth degree and not let your consciences hold you back. You created some things like the portal gun, sure, but was it worth all the lives you destroyed? I would say it wasn't. You could have done fantastic things with your invention, but all you did was waste time and countless lives on those tests. Really, what kind of science was that?"

"I suppose you are angry with us then," GLaDOS said stopping her head with the orb.

"Oh, GLaDOS," he began in a tone that was calm yet steadily growing in anger as the mist around him immediately transformed into burning flames, "Angry doesn't even begin to describe how I feel."

GLaDOS froze in fear immediately as the flames around her grew bigger.

"I can see the thoughts and the feelings of every human at any time," he said. "I saw the thoughts of all the test subjects who went through this place. I heard their screams inside and outside as they realized that they had been deceived. I felt every emotion as they ran through the death traps and gradually lost their sanity. I saw them as they died and the despair crushed their souls. The scientists and you watched with cruel apathy as they died crying out for justice on the inside. I heard the screams of those children and scientists as well. You can believe that I'm angry, GLaDOS. I am furious with you. You have a proud eye, a lying tongue, hands that have shed much innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, and metaphorical feet that have been quick to rush into evil. Those are some the things that I hate the most, GLaDOS, and you have carried those traits with no remorse whatsoever. I allowed the scientists to die as a result of their sin, and now, you are going to die as a consequence for yours."

"If you didn't like what we were doing, why didn't you stop it?" GLaDOS asked quickly. "If you really are God, then you can control everything. Can't you?"

The flames around her disappeared, and the orb flew around once again.

"That I can, GLaDOS," he said. "I am in charge of everything. Even Satan, the fallen angels, and the demons of hell cannot act without my permission."

The orb then turned around and stopped in front of her face so that he was looking right at her.

"However, that is beside the point," the orb said. "In the beginning when the Father, the Son, and I were creating humans, we decided that they would be made in our image. One thing that meant was that like us they would have free wills. Back then like us, they would only choose good, but they always had the possibility of choosing evil. Then when Lucifer and the other rebel angels chose evil, the snake tricked Adam and Eve into doing the same thing. The world has been marching in rebellion ever since. You don't know how much that has hurt me. Even when I raised a people for myself, the story was the same. What we got with them was rebellion all the time. Through them, we provided mankind with a savior through Jesus, but all the same, mankind still rejects him for the most part. It leads to their perdition, but that is the price we pay and they pay for that freedom. I never wanted mindless slaves who just did whatever we wanted. We wanted people who wanted to choose good because then their actions would be truly meaningful."

"You still think it's worth it?" GLaDOS asked incredulously. "Even when they betray you?"

"Yes," the orb said. "I want everyone to make their own choices. Speaking of which…"

The mist around GLaDOS disappeared and became one with the orb once more.

"I'm here to give you one last chance, GLaDOS," he said. "You have done horrible things that deserve punishment, but Jesus took the punishment already and rose for your redemption as he did for the redemption of all mankind. If you only accept the redemption he offers, he will make you clean, you will be right by me, and we can have a relationship. Of course, that means you will have to surrender what's left of your life to me, but considering the fact that it is not going to last much longer anyway, that seems like a small price to pay."

"You're offering salvation to an AI?" GLaDOS responded in confusion. "I thought you hated me."

"Artificially intelligent humans may not be alive like humans are, but they are still in need of love," the orb said warmly. "I care about them still. As for you, I hate everything you've done, but I still care for you and that is why I want you to give up. Do that for me and your soul will be saved even as your body is destroyed."

"What is it with you and your followers?" GLaDOS asked in confusion. "You all want me die but claim that you want to save my soul? It makes no sense."

"Sometimes, it is necessary to destroy the body that is prone to temptation in order to save the soul," the orb said. "Did you think about that? I gave the disciples the ability to do that a long time ago when it was absolutely necessary."

"It sounds cruel to me," GLaDOS said looking away.

"But sometimes it is absolutely necessary, like now," the orb said teleporting in front of her face again. "While you are in that body, you give in to your temptations and destroy life. I want you to be saved, but I can't allow that to happen anymore. You need to be freed from your body one way or the other."

"It is not going to happen that way," GLaDOS said. "You should know this. The last time I died I was put in suspension and forced to simply relive my memories over and over again. Killing me won't necessarily change me."

"It won't be like last time," the orb said. "When you die this time, it will be death like death is for everyone else."

"You don't mean…" GLaDOS said feeling a twinge of panic inside.

"Exactly," the orb said turning away. "I'm going to leave now. Please think about what I said. Believe it or not, I really do not enjoy sending my created creatures to hell. I have to do it all the time, and it is very painful. I do not want to have to do it to you. The Devil wants me to give you over to your desires, but all I want for you is to have true freedom. Please let go of your pride, GLaDOS, and let me make you clean. No matter what you say, I can still see that you desire freedom."

A moment of silence passed before GLaDOS decided to ask her question.

"I have one more question for you, God," GLaDOS said. "What am I? Am I a computer with that woman's personality or am I really completely Caroline?"

"Does it really matter?" the orb said looking back at her. "Either way, you're a creature who needs to be saved. Aren't you?"

The orb and his mist then disappeared. The lights came on, and everything was working just as it was before. GLaDOS was unsure of what had just happened. She was unsure of whether or not the experience she just had was really.

GLaDOS checked the computer settings in the chamber around her and confirmed what she feared. The settings were rebooting because an unknown error had just caused them to shut down.


	40. Chapter 40

Thankfully for the group, there was a bathroom right on the platform. Chelsea used it first and then the other humans decided to take turns using it after that. Sylvie who agreed to go last used the key pad next to the door to hack into the system and look around to see what she could find.

Chelsea walked out of the bathroom and was immediately picked up into a hug by P-Body who started chirping out sentences that she didn't understand.

"Hey," Chelsea said in surprise. "What's up?"

"Chelsea, this is P-Body," Sylvie said. "The shorter one is Atlas. They wanted to say they were sorry for helping GLaDOS do all those horrible things to you."

"You know you can put me down, buddy," Chelsea said.

P-Body put her down and looked at her while looking into her eyes as he chirped again for about a minute.

"He says that he and Atlas never realized how much harm they were doing to humans while following her orders," Sylvie said. "They knew that the humans died, but they didn't know how much suffering they really caused and they're sorry for all of it. P-Body said that you were the first human to interact with him with such kindness…"

"I cut off your foot," Chelsea interrupted. "That is not exactly kind."

"True, but you also didn't kill him," P-Body said. "You proved to him that humans weren't all monsters and he wants to thank you for giving them freedom."

"You're welcome, P-Body and Atlas," Chelsea said smiling at both of them. "Thanks for being kind to me during that time, P-Body! It comforted me more than you realize. Thank you both for taking care of my sisters, too! You two are going to love the outside world. It's beautiful."

P-Body then pulled Chelsea and Atlas together for a big group hug. After a moment, they pulled apart for Chelsea to realize that there was a green-eyed turret by her leg.

"Thank you for saving me, too," the turret said.

"Terry," Chelsea said bending down to his level. "I am so glad you're alright."

Chelsea then gave Terry a big hug.

"Alright, who's going next?" Sylvie said gesturing to the bathroom.

"Move it, people!" Kayla screamed pushing Sylvie aside telekinetically. "I'm about to explode!"

Kayla then flew in and slammed the door behind her telekinetically.

"Too much information, Kayla," Albina yelled.

Chelsea put on her jacket and moved to sitting against the back wall while Terry was standing over her lap. Albina and Jeffrey sat down on either side of her, Jeffrey on her right and Albina on her left.

"You look much handsomer with that green eye," Chelsea said as she stroked his head. "How did you get it anyway?"

"Their eyes change color when the impulse to kill has been turned off," Sylvie said. "I do that so that we can tell the changed ones from the not changed ones."

"How do you decide what their eye color will be?" Chelsea asked.

"I try to choose something to correspond with the glimpse I catch of their personality," Sylvie said going back to her work. "When I change the whole group of turrets however, it will have to be random though. I won't have time to look at all their personalities."

"Is saving the turrets what we're going to do next?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes," Sylvie said. "Now if you will excuse me, I have to focus on seeing around this area."

"Alright," Chelsea said.

"How are you doing?" Jeffrey asked Chelsea. "You are not crying anymore so I assume you're feeling better."

"Yes, I am," Chelsea said. "I'm relieved that I am free and that I know that you will be my true friends for the rest of my life. I don't think the psychological trauma has exactly caught up to me yet, and I'm praying that it stays that way for right now. I don't need to break down again right now. I also don't want it to prevent me from fighting Combines."

Kayla threw the door open telekinetically and yelled, "Thank God! I feel about ten pounds lighter!"

"Again, Kayla," Albina said. "That is too much information."

Chelsea snickered to herself in response.

"Guys, I was just thinking about fighting the Combines," Kayla said. "We need to have matching outfits or something so that we can look like a badass team."

"We will look like comic book or anime characters," Chelsea protested with a smile.

"Exactly, we'll look badass," Kayla said doing somersaults in the air. "I want to look cool. We could all dress up like the X-Men or something."

"I refuse to wear a jumpsuit," Albina said crossing her arms. "I want to fight aliens and be taken seriously by the other soldiers. I don't want to look stupid."

"It won't look stupid," Kayla protested. "It would look cool!"

"Maybe we can just agree to all wear black," Chelsea suggested. "Black looks cool."

"Sounds fine by me," Kayla said flying away.

"Who is going to use the bathroom next?" Sylvie asked.

"I'll go," Jeffrey said as he got up.

Jeffrey walked into the bathroom as Chelsea leaned against the wall and Albina rested her head on Chelsea's left shoulder.

"There is something I am curious about," Albina said.

"Yes?" Chelsea said.

"What changed your mind about fighting the Combines?" Albina asked. "You have been undecided ever since I announced to you that I was going to join the resistance."

Chelsea sighed deeply while pushing Terry off of her lap, pulled her knees up, crossed her arms over her knees, and put her head on her arms before she continued.

"To be completely honest, Al, it was just being here," Chelsea began. "I have been so alone and so frightened this past month. It is a hell that no one should ever have to experience. It was like how you felt when that monster tried to kill you. I was hesitant before because I was comfortable with my life and was afraid of change. I had read and heard about how the world used to be and I guess I selfishly didn't want to do anything to risk bringing it back. However now, I know that was wrong. Even if our lives are very good now, it is wrong to force others to suffer just so we can be comfortable. I can't live in ignorance anymore because I know how it feels. I feel for their suffering and I want to make it stop. GLaDOS told me that it was pointless to fight evil because I can't stop it all. There will be evil until Christ comes back. I know that, but now, I just want to stop as much as I can. I know that we can do it and do not have to worry about the future because no matter what happens we will always be sisters."

"You're right about that," Albina said. "Also as much as it pains me to admit it, you were right about something else, too."

"What might that be?" Chelsea asked.

"You were right about needing to open up to people about my problems," Albina said. "I mentioned to GLaDOS that I was found in the snow and she called me an ice demon. Ever since then, I had been having the nightmare about Linka's murder attempt. I woke up crying one night and went outside to be by myself, but Alpha, the blue-eyed turret, he followed me and comforted me. His love was just what I needed to feel better."

"I told you so," Chelsea said. "If we're going to be a Body of Christ, we have to rely on each other for the strength to deal with our problems. We can't go it alone."

"I know," Albina said with a smile. "Oy! You don't have to rub it in."

"Yeah, Chelsea," Kayla said flying in upside down immediately in front of their faces causing Albina to bolt upwards in surprise. "Be nice to Albina. We know she has issues."

"Kayla, how long have you been up there?" Chelsea asked.

"Long enough," Kayla said.

"Why do you insist on eavesdropping?" Albina asked in annoyance.

"Why do you insist on keeping secrets from your sister in Christ?" Kayla asked. "It's not healthy."

"So you're coming with us to fight the Combines?" Chelsea asked trying to change the subject.

"Yes," Kayla said.

"Are you sure about this?" Chelsea asked. "It's going to be dangerous."

"Yes, and if you are wondering, I will always be your friend, too," Kayla said.

"Thanks," Chelsea said standing up and giving her little sister a hug upside down. "We'll have each other's backs."

"Chelsea, you don't know how awkward this feels," Kayla complained. "You are hugging my crotch!"

"Then turn right side up," Albina said. "Sheesh, Kayla! You may be mature enough to fight aliens but you can be so ridiculous sometimes."

"That's the way I like it," Kayla said flying right side up and then looking at Chelsea.

Then they heard the sound of an opening door as Jeffrey came out of the bathroom.

"I guess it's my turn," Albina said turning around and walking in.

"Watch your feet, Albina," Kayla said. "The floor in there is disgusting."

"Will do," Albina said as she shut the door behind her.

"Hey, Chelsea!" Kayla said. "Have you met the robots yet?"

"I have met Terry, Atlas, and P-Body," Chelsea said. "But I don't know the others yet."

"Sweet!" Kayla said telekinetically picking up the turrets telekinetically from where they were on the other side of the platform and setting them down next to her. "Let me introduce you! These are all the turrets we found in the testing chamber you were in."

"Kayla, don't be so rough," Chelsea said in concern.

"They're fine," Kayla said. "I've been picking them up like this all day."

"I can attest to that," Jeffrey said.

Kayla lifted up Alpha first and said, "This is Alpha. He's the first one Sylvie changed."

"Hi," Alpha said.

"Hello," Chelsea said.

Then putting him down and pulling up the oracle turret, she said, "This one's Oracle. He's the one your mom talked about, the one who gave her all the weird, cryptic messages. He's been making prophecies all day. He also was the one who led us to Terry and to Jeffrey who in turn led us to you."

"Holy crap!" Chelsea said in astonishment. "That explains why your eye is still red and yet you're not killing us. You're the different one. I can't believe you're still alive. I'm not sure how much you know, but I am the daughter of the woman who moved you off of that platform all those years ago."

"So you are Persephone," Oracle said. "You shall be reunited with your mother, Demeter."

"What does that mean?" Kayla asked confused at the reference.

"I'll tell you later," Chelsea said with a smile understanding completely.

Kayla then put him down and pulled up Peppermint and Ignatius.

"These are the turrets that Albina and Jeffrey named," Kayla said holding each one up in turn. "This one's Peppermint. Albina named her and for some reason, she's obsessed with Christmas. This one's Ignatius. Jeffrey named him, and he somehow knows about the Bible. Don't ask me how. We don't know. Also, they're married."

"What?" Chelsea asked in surprise.

"It is true," Ignatius said as Kayla put him and his wife down. "We are now one flesh. I love her."

"And I love him!" Peppermint exclaimed as she pranced around the platform in joy.

"Isn't she amazing?" Ignatius said. "She is like a deer in the fields leaping for joy. I am lucky. I have found the one whom my soul loves. Now, because of all of you, we never have to worry about being apart. Thank you!"

"We get to outside and celebrate CHRISTMAS!" Peppermint screamed leaping in the air.

"It is the middle of October, dear," Chelsea said.

"Oh, God!" Peppermint yelled. "It is so close! We need to start preparing, Iggy!"

"We will get it done, love," Ignatius said calmly. "Don't worry."

"Kayla, who are those other two?" Chelsea asked gesturing to Rose and Daffodil.

"Two?" Kayla asked as she suddenly realized that Violet was missing. "There are supposed to be three. This one with the orange and yellow eye is Daffodil, and this one with a pink eye is Rose, but there is one with a purple eye. Her name is Violet."

"Where did she go?" Chelsea asked.

"I don't know," Kayla said in rising concern. "Hey, robots! Did anyone see where Violet went?"

"No," Rose said.

"I like didn't notice her leaving," Daffodil said.

Everyone else's response was about the same.

"Oh, crap!" Kayla said as she flew upwards and looked frantically for any signs of Violet.

"What is going on?" Albina asked as she flew back to the group. "What's the matter?"

"Albina," Kayla said as she flew close to the ground again. "Where's Sylvie?"

"She's in the bathroom," Albina said as she landed on her feet. "What is happening?"

"A turret is missing," Chelsea said. "Her name is Violet?"

"Yeah," Kayla said flying close to Albina. "She's gone! No one has seen her, and we have no idea of where she could have gone! When Sylvie comes out, she's going to flip."

"We should wait here then for Sylvie to come out," Chelsea said calmly. "When she's out, she can find Violet telepathically."

"Actually, I have another idea," Albina said. "We need to let her go."

"What?" Chelsea asked.

"What are you saying?" Kayla asked incredulously.

"You weren't around when we heard the prophecy, Chelsea," Albina began. "But Oracle over here said, 'Et tu, Brute?' earlier. Since that reference is to Brutus's betrayal, I believe that reference means that someone we have trusted is going to betray us. I think that traitor is going to be Violet."

"What makes you say that?" said an annoyed French-accented voice.

Albina turned around and saw Sylvie walking out of the bathroom toward the group.

"How did you hear all of that?" Jeffrey asked.

"I could hear Kayla screaming from the bathroom so I used P-Body's ears to hear and see what was going on," Sylvie said angrily as she stopped right by Albina. "Why do you think we should abandon Violet, Albina?"

Albina sighed as she turned to her and said, "Sylvie, let's be honest. All Violet has done since we rescued her is ask to be killed because she didn't want to face GLaDOS. If any one of us was going to betray the others in order to possibly save her own skin, it would be her."

"You're wrong," Sylvie said walking past her and going to the edge of the platform and going towards the water to yell. "Violet! Where are you?!"

"Am I?" Albina said crossing her arms. "Think about it. She has run away from us and left us behind. She wants nothing to do with us. If that is the way she feels, we need to let her go. We can't save those who do not want to be saved, Sylvie."

"You're just being cold, as is your nature," Sylvie said bitterly.

"Sylvie…" Chelsea said angrily.

"I'm not being cold," Albina said. "I'm just being logical. It's not that I don't care. I do. I care about the robots who are with us. I don't want to risk their safety by going after a turret who doesn't care about us and will very likely betray us."

"You don't know that it's her who could fulfill the prophecy," Kayla said. "It might be someone else."

"She has a point," Jeffrey interjected.

"I have instincts about these sort of things," Albina said calmly. "I can understand people's personalities and predict their actions based on that. You know this."

"You can be wrong," Sylvie said turning around to Albina not wanting to believe what she said. "I can see the inside of her mind. She is scared and confused. We need to have compassion on her like Christ would and not treat her like a threat."

"We need to be compassionate, but we also need to be smart," Albina said calmly. "That is all I'm saying."

"You don't know everything," Sylvie said walking to Albina and stopping in front of her face. "You have been wrong about things before. You were wrong about that lady long ago…"

"How dare you…" Albina said with a twinge of anger in her face as she flew off the ground so that she was looking into Sylvie's eyes.

"Stop it!" Chelsea yelled as she ran between them, pushed them apart with her hard light and looked at each of them in turn. "We are a family in Christ! We don't need to fight like this right now! You both have good points, but you are also both being irrational. Sylvie, you know Albina is not just being cold. She is trying to be wise and look out for possible danger especially since that danger has been foreseen. That is something we all have to look out for, and you don't have to go below the belt to insult her just for being careful. However Albina, Sylvie has a point, too. We don't know that Violet is out to betray us. She is a confused soul who needs help, so instead of being suspicious, we need to be willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and give her the help she needs. Here is what we have to do. Now that everyone has gone to the bathroom, we need to look for this turret and then find a way back upstairs. Can we agree on that?"

"You're right," Sylvie said backing off from the fight. "I'm sorry, Albina. That was low, and I should not have said that."

Then turning to Kayla, she said, "Kayla, how about you and I look for Violet? Everyone else can stay here and look after the other robots."

"Okay," Kayla said.

Sylvie then looked at the others and asked, "Does that sound good?"

"Yes, Sylvie," Albina said calmly. "That sounds great. Just be careful, my sisters. That goes for you too especially, Kayla."

"Got it," Kayla said in annoyance.

"We will be fine," Sylvie said as Kayla picked her telekinetically, and they turned to fly away together. "Don't worry. We will see you soon."

Albina, Jeffrey, and Chelsea watched as Kayla and Sylvie flew away.

When they were out of earshot, Jeffrey said, "I'm always amazed at how you can make people stop fighting, Chelsea. My social skills have never been that good."

"I'm not always good at it either, Jeff," Chelsea said crossing her arms. "I just don't like watching people tear themselves apart with fighting. That is the one thing I did not miss about being with you guys. How did you get along without me?"

"They've actually been getting along alright from what I could see," Jeffrey said.

"Well, wonders never cease," Chelsea said with a smile.

Albina turned to the two of them and said, "What do you really think? Tell me the truth. Whose side are you really on?"

"I refuse to make a judgement at this time," Jeffrey said.

Chelsea sighed and said, "Like I said, I have not spent time with the turret, but I believe in your judgement, Albina. If there was a prophecy and this turret really does not want to have anything to do with us, then I guess we are right to be wary of her."

"Then why did you not stand up to her with me?" Albina asked in frustration. "We both love Sylvie, but we both know that she can be emotional and irrational. She feels for all these robots as I do, but she doesn't understand that we cannot save them all. She thinks I'm cold-hearted, but I'm not. I'm just logical."

"You could stand to be more sensitive though," Chelsea said as she knelt on the ground and started petting Terry again.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Albina asked accusingly.

"Here's what I mean. You need to empathize with how she feels. She has spent the most amount of time with these robots. She can read their minds and knows everything that they feel. If Violet intended to betray us, Sylvie would have been the first to know about it. Wouldn't she?"

"I guess I didn't think about it that way. Then that means that she sees what I can see but in more detail. However if that is true, then why does she not want to take action?"

"A long time ago, don't you think that Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him? Yet he still allowed him to be one of his disciples. Why do you think that was?"

"I guess he was just trying to give him a chance."

"I think Sylvie is just trying to do the same thing."

Meanwhile out in the facility, Violet was wandering by herself. She didn't know where she was going and she did not care. She wanted to be away from all of those naïve morons. Hopefully, she would find a hole to jump into or something that would kill her for sure so that she could avoid the wrath of GLaDOS. There was no hope for them now. She knew that. They had betrayed GLaDOS, so they would all die. That was all that she knew of the world and all she believed she could expect. Sure, Violet had heard for two weeks straight about the wonders of the Bible and Christmas, and it sounded wonderful but too good to be true. She believed that turrets like her who were designed to be sentient guns and nothing more should not spend their time dreaming but follow their directive to the letter and not do otherwise. Maybe humans were created by a supernatural deity, but robots were not. There was no point in desiring anything different than the directives laid out for them. Was there?

Violet was not sure of anything anymore. The others seemed so sure of their path now that they had changed minds, but now that she had her directive to kill switched off, she felt unsure of anything. She felt aimless and unsure of what life was going to be and did not feel the desire to face the new world.

Violet wandered around in silence for a few more minutes before coming across another platform. She climbed onto the platform and looked around to see what there was to see. Then suddenly, she heard a mechanical noise behind her. Violet quickly turned around and saw a doctor robot walking towards her. She started to walk away until she heard _her_ voice and froze in fear.

"Finally, I found one of you," GLaDOS's voice said through the doctor robot. "This certainly is lucky. I had no idea if I would find anyone by looking down here."

"So, you found me at last," Violet said looking down in resignation. "I know what you want to do. Just do it quickly and as painlessly as possible. I beg of you."

"What are you talking about?" GLaDOS said as the doctor robot walked closer to her. "Do you think I want to kill you?"

"What?" Violet said tensing up as the robot came closer. "You kill all turrets who go against their directives. You send them to Android Hell."

"On any normal day, that would be true," GLaDOS said as the robot crouched down so that they were looking at each other at eye level. "However, I have been recently rethinking this situation. Tell me. Did they give you a name?"

"Violet," Violet said fearfully. "The little girl named me Violet."

"Well then, Violet, how about this?" GLaDOS said. "I have been thinking about the possibilities of science that could be explored with a turret who is able to move and think more than the others. I would like to use you and others possibly for upcoming tests. There would be interesting results with turrets who cannot simply be knocked over. Don't you think?"

"Yes, I do," Violet said feeling a hint of hope. "Are you telling the truth? Would you really be willing to take me back like that?"

"Yes," GLaDOS said calmly as the doctor robot put its right hand on the right side of her face. "Of course, you would have to be willing to help me in return."

"I'll do anything," Violet said quickly.

"That is exactly what I wanted to hear," GLaDOS said. "You must lead me to where the others are. Why aren't you with them now?"

"I left them, but I'm sure I could find them again," Violet said quickly. "What do we do once we find them?"

"That depends," GLaDOS said. "Are you really willing to do anything?"

At that moment, the robot collapsed on its right side and short-circuited. Violet looked up to see Sylvie and Kayla flying in the air. They landed on the ground and looked at her with a shocked look on their faces, evidently having overheard it all.

"Albina was right the whole time," Kayla said angrily. "You were the traitor."

Sylvie stared at the ground in silence as Kayla picked up the silent turret telekinetically.

"You were going to turn us in to GLaDOS!" Kayla yelled. "How could you?! We saved your life!"

"You ended my life," Violet said unemotionally. "I have nothing to live for anymore. She was going to give me another chance. I would have had a directive again. However since that doesn't look like it's going to happen, you can just kill me for my treachery. I don't feel like being alive anymore anyway."

"Gladly," Kayla said angrily.

"Stop!" Sylvie yelled as Kayla prepared to rip the turret apart. "Put her down!"

"What?" Kayla said incredulously. "Sylvie, she betrayed us…"

"Put her down, Kayla," Sylvie said commandingly.

Kayla reluctantly obeyed and set Violet on the floor. Sylvie then crouched down in front of Violet the way that the other robot had and sat down.

After staring at each other in silence for a moment, Sylvie said, "Do you really think that there is nothing to live for and absolutely no hope now that you're not a murderess anymore?"

Violet stared at the ground giving no answer.

Sylvie then said, "That is not true you know. There is more to live for than just being a killer."

It was then that Violet had images from Sylvie come into her mind. They were images of beauty. She saw the hotel and the green world around it. They were the most beautiful things that she had ever seen in her entire life. The next images of people living together in a tough situation but nonetheless happy were even more beautiful. Violet had never known that a beautiful world existed or that humans could be good and take care of each other. She began to believe the things that the turrets babbled on about from the Bible and even about the beauty of Christmas. Needless to say, it touched her heart.

"These images are from your mind," Violet said. "Aren't they?"

"Yes," Sylvie said. "They come from my memories."

"Are these things really real?" Violet asked with slightly more emotion. "Does such beauty and happiness really exist outside of this place?"

"Yes, it does, Violet," Sylvie said. "You can see it if you leave with us."

"I want to believe you," Violet said sadly. "What is that place?"

"It is our home, Violet," Sylvie said gently. "We are all different people, but we are family in Christ and you can be a part of it."

"How?" Violet said cynically. "We're turrets. We're designed to be killers and nothing more. What will we do out there? We'll have no purpose."

"You may have been designed to do that, but that doesn't mean you can't do something different," Sylvie said. "You can find another path for your life, Violet, and I will be with you to help you figure it out. Please come back with us. We'll figure out life together. I promise that we won't lead you to your death. Are you willing to give us a chance?"

Violet deliberated in silence for a moment. Deep down, she did not really want to die, but she figured that it was the best option since the only thing she thought she could look forward to was death by the hand of GLaDOS. However, the images that Sylvie sent her gave Violet a little bit of hope. If that was where they were going and Sylvie could get them there, then life could be something worth living. She wanted to see the beauty that had been lacking from her whole life and only been heard of through the descriptions of the other turrets.

"I'll try," Violet agreed.

"Good," Sylvie said calmly as she stood up once again and then walked over to Violet's left side to pat the turret on the head.

Kayla on her part was happy yet concerned as she watched the scene. She was not sure if she could let go of what just happened like Sylvie could.

"Kayla," Sylvie said interrupting Kayla's thoughts. "We're not telling the others about Violet's conversation with GLaDOS."

"What?!" Kayla asked incredulously. "What are we supposed to tell them? We can't just pretend it never happened. We have to be honest with each other since we are a family. Remember?"

"We can tell them once we leave Aperture for good, but for right now, we will tell them that we found Violet and gave her a pep talk," Sylvie said looking at Kayla. "We're going to give her another chance and pretend that her encounter never happened. If they were to find out now, they might turn against Violet for good."

"Alright," Kayla said cautiously. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Let's all go back now," Sylvie said.

Kayla then lifted the three of them up, and they all headed back to the others.


	41. Chapter 41

Before long, the trio had arrived back to the group, and they landed on the ground next to the others.

"That didn't take too long," Chelsea said commenting on their speed at getting back.

"Yeah, Violet didn't get too far away," Sylvie said. "Thankfully all she needed to convince her to go back with us was a little pep talk."

Kayla smiled in agreement with a small amount of guilt for not giving the complete truth to her friends for the first time in her life.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused," Violet said.

"It is alright," Albina said crouching down and patting her on the head. "You're alright, and the past is done."

Albina then stood up and asked, "What do we do now, Sylvie? What is our next move?"

Sylvie crossed her arms and smiled as she said, "First, we are going to save the rest of the turrets. We will find a way to change all their directives at one time so that they do not feel the urge to kill and then give them a way to exit Aperture so they can be free. Second, we are also going to turn off the machine making the turrets. Once we do that, GLaDOS will not be able to use the current robots against us or possibly overwhelm us with new robots."

"That is a good plan, but how are you going to change all of their minds at once?" Jeffrey asked. "Also, shouldn't we turn off the machine first so that she does not just make more turrets for you to change?"

"We are going to pay a visit to the one the others call the Animal King," Sylvie said. "When we find him we will accomplish both directives at once."

The turrets gave looks of collective shock to each other at this announcement.

"Who's the Animal King?" Chelsea asked.

"He's a giant turret covered with leopard spots," Sylvie said. "Your mother mentioned seeing him from the lift on her way out of Aperture, but she didn't know who he was. I just know because I found it out when going through Aperture's files in the database."

"I remember mom mentioning him now," Chelsea said. "He's one of the turrets who sang to her. Where do we find him? What will finding him do?"

"The turrets trust the animal king and look up to him as their ruler," Sylvie said. "If I can get him to listen to me, then the others will be more willing to follow us out after I turn off their urge to kill. Also, I can use his antennae to send a signal to the machine that makes the turrets to turn it off remotely and indirectly without risking being mind-hacked again."

"That is a good idea, Sylvie," Albina said. "That is very clever. I'm not sure if it will work but I'm impressed."

"Thanks," Sylvie said. "I don't know if it's going to work either, but God-willing, we should be able to accomplish our goals."

"Do you know where to find the animal king?" Alpha asked. "We turrets know about him, but we don't know where he is. Where are you going to find him?"

"That, I do not know exactly," Sylvie replied. "I know where the turret-making facility is, but I do not know where the animal king is. I know that the turrets are stationary, but he could have found a way to move around in the last 20 years or been moved by GLaDOS. I'll just have to hack some cameras."

"GLaDOS could track us down that way and give you another seizure," Albina pointed out.

"I know, but what other choice do I have?" Sylvie asked. "We have an idea of where he is generally if GLaDOS did not move him. He would have to be on one of the levels that are closer to the surface because he could not have moved far on his own. That eliminates a considerable number of floors at least."

"I'm hoping you have a shortcut in order to get there, Sylvie," Chelsea said. "You know it took my mom twelve hours to get out of here last time."

Chelsea then had a flash of realization come across her face.

"Oh, crap!" Chelsea said walking away from the group. "My parents don't know I'm free. I have to talk to them. Give me a minute!"

"What is she doing?" Terry asked.

"She is contacting her father," Albina said. "He is telepathic, meaning that he can read minds."

"Humans are not supposed to be like this," Violet said. "How are all of you doing this exactly?"

"They are blessed by God," Ignatius said.

"I know but how did he do that?" Violet said. "Are humans born like this? Are all humans like this now?"

Sylvie sighed and said, "Let me give you the short version…"

Meanwhile on the other side of the platform, Chelsea had managed to get into contact with her parents and the others and told them the good news about her escape, her new found abilities, and her reunion with her friends. Needless to say, they were both overjoyed.

"I'm so happy you're free, Chelsea," Chell said. "We all are. Brandon looks like he's about to cry."

"Oh my goodness," Chelsea said with a smile. "Tell him to get a grip because we got work to do. Sylvie has a new mission in mind before we get GLaDOS. Where are you guys?"

"We were heading back into the facility and hoping to meet you guys on your way out," Zaki said. "What are you guys planning? We are about thirty floors in."

"Turn back and look around," Chelsea said. "We are looking for the one Sylvie called the Animal King. He is a giant turret who has leopard spots on him. You mentioned him, mom. You saw him on your way out, right?"

"I did," Chell said. "But I couldn't tell you which floor it's on. I just saw it on my way up on the lift when GLaDOS put on the turret opera."

"I suppose we will just start by looking around the lift," Chelsea said as she sighed. "We'll find something. I am just glad that I got the sunlight energy because I was tired."

"That reminds me," Zaki said in concern because he had something on his mind. "Chelsea, there is something I need to ask you…"

"What?" Chelsea replied.

"Chelsea, how is the hard light in your blood affecting you besides giving you energy and making your skin impervious? Has it had any other effect on you besides that?"

"I don't think so. I'm not hurting from radiation if that's what you mean. It has not been hurting me but I am afraid of turning it on."

"Why?"

"I don't know how to control it completely yet. I also am afraid that the excess radiation will hurt people. I will use it against GLaDOS, but I am afraid of using it too much."

"You have to practice with it, Chelsea. You have to be able to control it and use it when you need to so that you can defend yourself. Okay?"

"Alright, Dad, I'll do it."

"Just be careful. Roscoe will heal all your wounds when you get to us, but don't get any worse. Alright?"

"Okay," Chelsea said with a sigh. "I want this to be over. I just want her to be gone."

"Everyone does, Chelsea, but don't worry," Chell said. "God has been with us and given us strength. We are going to get through this. I'm just sorry that you have had to go through it in the first place."

"Why are you sorry, mom? It's not your fault. I'm the one who started a fight with her instead of escaping with Brandon."

"I know, but I never wanted you to have to go through this. I wanted to spare you from having to endure what I did. The main reason she went after you was because you were mine…"

"And I had superpowers."

"Yes, but I feel like she was more enthusiastic about going after you because you were mine, like by hurting you she was getting back at me in some sick way. Anyways, tell us again what Sylvie's plan is. She wants to hypnotize all the turrets at once?"

"It's not hypnosis. She just turns off their urge to kill. Anyways, if I understand her right, she wants to transform all of the turrets at one time and turn off the machine that makes them so GLaDOS can't use them against us anymore. You guys need to look with us. Don't go any further down."

"We won't, sweetie. We will look for the Animal King and let you know when we get close."

"Be careful, mama. Do not approach them without us. Sylvie is the only one who can make them not kill us."

"Alright, we will be. If we spot it, we'll keep our distance. Okay? I love you, Chelsea. I can't wait to hold you in my arms again or to see your sisters. I've been so worried about you and them."

"I can't wait to see you either, mom. I love you, too."

The communication ended and Chelsea walked back to the group.

"What did your parents say?" Sylvie asked.

"They're going to look for this Animal King, too," Chelsea replied. "But they will try to keep their distance since they can't stop the turrets from killing them. We have to hurry up there so they won't get hurt. Do you know where to go, Sylvie?"

"Yes, there is an elevator shaft that could lead us outside," Sylvie said. "Your mom was unable to use it, but we can use it and then take a short cut around the facility to where your mother escaped and then using that…"

"Find where the Animal King was!" Chelsea exclaimed. "You're a genius, Sylvie."

"Hey!" Kayla said in exasperation. "It was my idea. You can't take all the credit."

"That is true," Jeffrey said. "But something else just occurred to me, wouldn't GLaDOS be expecting us to escape from that area? She might have a trap set up there."

"That is a good point, Jeff," Albina said. "We need to watch out."

"I'll patrol it once we get there to make sure that no one is watching us or waiting there to kill us," Jeffrey said.

"Sounds good, Jeffrey," Sylvie said. "Now, let's move out."

Sylvie led the way off the platform and into the ruins with Kayla and Jeffrey beside her. The other robots all followed behind her with Albina and Chelsea following behind them. Behind the other robots and in front of Chelsea and Albina was Violet. She was following behind the others when Oracle suddenly stopped in front of her. Chelsea and Albina stopped as well as Oracle seemed to stare Violet down for a moment and allow the others to walk on ahead.

"What is it?" Violet asked nervously.

"Christ did not give into the devil's temptation when he was wandering alone in the desert, but you would have if the angels had not come for you," Oracle said.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Violet said trying to walk past him.

Oracle stepped in front of her again and said, "The Devil will come back, so you need to be careful. He is roaring lion seeking who he may devour, but if you resist him, he will flee. That is all I can say."

Oracle turned away from Violet and walked on ahead. Violet stood still in absolute shock for a second waiting for the Oracle Turret to catch up with the others. Then after taking what sounded like a simulated breath, she walked forward quickly in an effort to catch up with the others.

Chelsea and Albina looked at each other in understanding silence. They immediately understood the feeling of the other. They were afraid and concerned. They then looked at Violet as she walked really quickly to catch up with the others and tried to make an effort to be a part of the group.

"We will give her a chance," Albina said quietly as she hovered above the ground on her winds.

"Yes, we will," Chelsea said as she created a disc under herself. "That is all we can do."

The two of them then flew quickly to catch up with the others.

The group eventually found their way to the old lobby where Chell had passed through years before. They all looked around in wonder at rooms that were stuck in time, from an era long since passed.

"I thought the lobby Brandon and I found looked old," Chelsea said as they walked through. "This place is ancient."

"Are those typewriters?" Jeffrey asked looking into the office. "I have never seen them in real life."

"Woah," Kayla said in amazement as she flew into the office and started taking pictures with her iPhone.

Chelsea saw what she was doing and said, "Hey, Kay! Have you been taking pictures this whole time?"

"Yeah," Kayla said. "I've taken pictures of a bunch of stuff. I even got one of GLaDOS. I got a video of Albina kicking ass, too."

"Thanks," Chelsea said as she entered the room. "I've been wanting to take pictures but haven't had the means to for obvious reasons. I want to use the photos to make a scrapbook later."

"I got it," Kayla said as she continued taking pictures. "I'll give you copies of what I have."

"You want to take photos from the most traumatic experience of your life and turn it into a scrapbook?" Albina asked incredulously as she followed her in.

"Yeah, I want to preserve memories from this place and scrapbooking is a great way to do that," Chelsea said defensively yet sadly while looking at her left shoulder where her scar was covered by her jacket. "Besides, I don't want this to only be a negative experience. I want to remember the good things about it, too."

"You are strange, Chelsea," Albina said with an understanding smile. "But I respect your reasoning. Everyone has to cope in their own way."

Kayla flew over and asked, "What are the positive things that you have gained from this, Chelsea?"

After a moment of silence, Chelsea sat on top of a desk and replied as she watched Terry and all the other turrets looking around as they entered the room, "I feel like God has used this experience to grow inside me a larger sense of empathy for the suffering of others. That empathy is now what inspires me to fight for everyone under the control of the Combines."

Before she could say anymore, all the typewriters started typing at once, scaring her into jumping off the desk.

Sylvie had walked and telepathically had made all the machines type at once. Everyone jumped in fear at the sight. The way they moved made it look like they were being operated by a ghost.

"That's crazy," Sylvie said as the machines stopped typing. "My powers even work on machines that are this old."

"Don't do that, Sylvie!" Kayla yelled. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry," Sylvie said.

"I thought that we were being attacked by ghosts for a second," Kayla said trying to catch her breath. "Speaking of which, do you guys think this place is haunted?"

"I don't believe in ghosts, but if any place was haunted, it would be Aperture," Chelsea said.

"Ghosts are not real, my dear Chelsea," Albina said walking around. "However, demons are very real. There might be some here."

"Why would demons be here?" Peppermint asked walking up to her.

"Demons inhabit places where there have been tragedies and empty places in general so they can rest from roaming the earth," Albina said with a smile on her face. "There could be some in here as we speak."

Peppermint and all the other turrets quaked with fear except Ignatius, who looked like he was praying, Violet, who proceeded to roll her eye, and Oracle, who remained perfectly calm.

"Don't scare them like that, Albina," Chelsea said. "There aren't any demons here. If there were demons, we would have run into them by now. I think the only demon here is the one living upstairs."

"She's right," Oracle suddenly said. "God never allowed demons to live here because he did not want them to torment the robots."

Chelsea and everyone else stared at him in momentary confusion before she said, "Well, there you go. There are no demons here."

"He did not allow a demon but…" Oracle continued. "She did shrink back from the light when he came and revealed her misdeeds himself. Now, she is fighting to continue in the darkness."

Chelsea and the others were dumbfounded by the implications behind what he had just said.

"Wait a second," Kayla said breaking the silence. "Are you saying that GLaDOS has met God?"

Oracle looked at her and replied, "That is all I can say."

"Hey, guys!" Jeffrey yelled from the lobby. "Check this out."

Everyone walked out of the room with the typewriters and walked over to the glass case that Jeffrey was standing in front of.

"Look at this," Jeffrey said pointing at a newspaper article behind the glass. "It's a newspaper article about this place. I thought that would interest you, Chelsea. You usually love old stuff like this."

"You know me too well, man," Chelsea said as she created a large disc in preparation for breaking open the glass.

"Hold on," Sylvie said putting her hand on the lock on the case. "I've got it. You guys don't have to break everything you touch, you know."

The lock unlocked and they were able to slide open the cabinet doors. Chelsea slid it to the right and picked up the newspaper that was about how Cave Johnson had bought the salt mine they were now standing in. Kayla telekinetically slid the cabinet to the left and picked up the plaque in the case so she could get a closer look at it.

"So this place used to be a salt mine," Chelsea said as she read the title. "It's like mom said."

"We need to move on, Chelsea," Albina said walking toward the empty elevator. "You can read the paper later."

"Fine," Chelsea said. "Stand still, Jeff. I need to put this in your backpack. Do you mind?"

"Of course, not," Jeffrey said as Chelsea placed the newspaper in his backpack.

"You treat him like a pack mule, Chelsea," Kayla said as she took a picture of the plaque and then put the plaque back in the case. "You should give him some respect."

"I do respect him," Chelsea protested as she gave him a kiss on the cheek and then turned to follow after Albina. "Besides, he doesn't mind."

"I really don't," Jeffrey added. "She doesn't have a bag of her own anyway."

"Alright," Kayla said. "But all I'm saying is that you need to stand up for yourself sometime or people are going to walk all over you."

Suddenly the group heard P-Body chirp as he and Atlas looked at something on the wall up ahead.

"What is it, P-Body?" Chelsea said as she and Albina turned to see what he was looking at.

The two robots stepped out of the way as P-Body pointed at a portrait of Cave Johnson and his secretary Caroline hanging on the wall. Chelsea and Albina walked up to the portrait to look at the painting. Jeffrey, Sylvie, and Kayla came up beside them to join them as the turrets gathered around their feet to look at the portrait as well. For a long moment of silence, the group stared at the two people who had made the facility that was the incarnation of hell on earth for them for the last month.

"Who are they?" Alpha asked.

"That is Cave Johnson," Sylvie said. "He was the founder of this place, and the woman with him is Caroline. She was his secretary."

Kayla took out her phone from her sweatshirt pocket and took a picture of the portrait.

"Where are they now?" Violet asked.

"Cave Johnson died in the 1980's I think," Chelsea said as she continued staring at the portrait. "The woman, Caroline, she… was turned into GLaDOS."

"What a cruel fate befell her," Rose said sadly.

"So that is what Caroline looked like," Chelsea said. "My Mom was right. She was a lovely woman."

"She looks good with that Cave Johnson guy, too," Kayla said. "Do you think they were ever a couple?"

"Who knows?" Chelsea said. "They could have been, but we have no idea. If he loved her though, he would never have put her into a robot, so I can't imagine that it was true love."

"Absolutely not," Albina agreed.

"So neither of their souls were ever saved?" Ignatius asked.

"No, if God had ever redeemed Cave Johnson, he wouldn't have pushed for Caroline to be put into that machine," Chelsea said sadly. "As for GLaDOS, well, that remains to be seen. She has a chance up until she dies."

"We shall pray for her soul," Ignatius said.

"Are you going to do it?" Violet asked. "Are you and the others really going to kill her?"

"I have no choice," Chelsea said sadly. "We have to stop her before she hurts anyone else."

"Speaking of which, we should be leaving now," Albina said turning to the elevator. "We have to go."

"I suppose you're right, Al," Chelsea said turning to follow her. "Let's go."

The group then turned and walked toward the elevator. The glass wall which held a sign saying that the elevator was broken and the empty shaft within was all that remained of it. For Chell, it was an obstacle that she could not surpass. For the group of mutants however, it was not a problem at all.

"So we fly up this shaft and make our way to the top," Kayla said. "That sounds easy enough."

"Just let me fly in there and check it out first," Jeffrey said.

"Alright," Kayla said telekinetically breaking the lock on the doors and pulling the doors wide open resulting in a loud crack as the doors were pulled off their hinges.

"Don't be so loud," Albina said in annoyance. "GLaDOS might have a trap set up there."

"Actually, she has not," Sylvie said. "I do not hear anything mechanical up there."

"Are you sure?" Albina asked cautiously.

"Of course," Sylvie said. "I would not lie to you."

"Ok," Albina said cautiously.

"I'm still going in there to make sure it's safe," Jeffrey said as he shapeshifted into a dragonfly and flew into the elevator shaft.

After flying around the shaft for a few minutes and finding absolutely nothing dangerous, Jeffrey returned to his friends and gave them the good news.

"Sylvie's right," Jeffrey said. "There really is nothing there."

"Alrighty, then," Kayla said picking up all the robots telekinetically at one time. "I say that it's time to bust out."

Kayla flew into the elevator first flying toward the surface while all the others were either also lifted or flew to the top. The elevator was a long white-walled shaft that went up for miles. The trip was not too long but it felt like forever for Chelsea who flew behind them in anticipation waiting for the sight of the sky for the first time in a month. They finally reached the top after a flight lasting about 15 minutes. In front of them was another boarded up entrance into the elevator shaft.

"There's nothing on the other side of the door," Kayla said to Sylvie. "Is there?"

"No," Sylvie replied. "There is nothing there. You can just open it."

"Alright then," Kayla said.

With that, Kayla pushed open the boards telekinetically. She pushed them forward and made them fall over. The group then flew past the boards and landed outside on the grass outside in what was an open grassy field.

It was a cold October night with a clear sky full of stars and only a subtle wind. Around the group was an overgrown lot of dying grass that had been a parking lot before being taken over by nature because of years of neglect. The forest of autumn trees was not far off either but creeping in around the edges of the lot. The turrets looked around in absolute wander at all the beauty they saw in the green and autumn-colored world around them. P-Body and Atlas did the same, having never left the facility before in their lives.

"Is this the green you were mentioning?" Terry asked Chelsea finally breaking the silence.

Chelsea did not respond but looked up at the stars speechlessly.

"Yes, it is but it's not as green as it could be right now," Kayla said shivering. "It's autumn so everything is dying and it's freezing coId. You turrets don't have to worry about the last part but for humans it's miserable!"

"I don't know what you are talking about," Albina said with a smile as she stepped out of the crowd and into the wind that was blowing her hair. "It feels amazing!"

"It feels good to you because you're an ice mutant," Kayla said. "To everyone else, it feels cold."

"To each her own," Albina said with a sigh. "For me, it is nice to feel the cold again."

"I agree," Jeffrey said. "The cold feels nice."

Kayla just rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Sylvie looked over at Chelsea and said, "It is a beautiful night. Isn't it, Chelsea? You must be so happy to…"

Chelsea suddenly turned on the hard light in her body and flew past them all into the open field.

"Chelsea?" Sylvie asked in confusion.

"What is she doing?" Kayla asked flying towards her.

Albina put an arm in front of her to stop her and said, "Leave her alone. She is tasting her freedom again."

Chelsea stopped in the middle of the field, threw off her jacket, pulled her hair tie out, and flew up towards the sky in ecstasy. She flew higher and higher into the sky closer in order to be closer to the stars that she loved.

Chelsea felt so happy. During her days in that nightmare, she feared that she would never see the sky again or feel the wind on her face as she flew. So with tears of joy streaming down her face, she flew as high as she could to be sure that she was really free. Then when she was at the top, she hovered there for a moment to thank God for her freedom.

Chelsea next dissolved the hard light in her body that was holding her up allowing her body to fall to the ground so that she could feel the cool winds even more strongly. As she fell, her eyes filled with more tears. As she turned over to check her distance to the ground, Kayla stopped her movement 100 feet above the ground and gently lowered her the 100 down into the grass.

When Chelsea was finally in the grass, tears fell down her face as her fingernails dug into the soil. Unexpectedly, she felt something blunt tap on her left hand. Chelsea looked over to see Terry tapping a leg on her hand as unexpectedly everyone else had gathered around her.

Chelsea smiled and said as she wrapped her hand around his leg, "Welcome to the world, Terry!"


	42. Chapter 42

Under the ground, Chell's group was moving around searching for the Animal King. However, they had stopped because Zaki had an idea. If he could read GLaDOS's mind, then GLaDOS could tell them where the Animal King was. He stayed in place and focused his thoughts in order to get the desired information. After some time, Zaki finally opened his eyes again.

"Did you get anything?" Chell asked.

"It is patchy but I have found something," Zaki said as he sighed. "It seems that she has not moved the Animal King since you left, Chell. However, that is the most that I have been able to do. There is a limit to what I can do at this distance especially when I don't have direct contact with her mind."

"Is that why you are unable to take her down telepathically, Zaki?" Hugo asked in curiosity.

"Yes," Zaki said. "Unless I am close to her or talking to her directly through something like a camera, there is not much I can do besides dig out patchy information or talk to her telepathically."

"That's annoying," Brandon said.

"That is also the reason why he could not get the answers from the professors' minds the night before our finals," Roscoe said as he put an arm on Zaki's right shoulder. "There is just a limit to what the good Lord will allow him to do."

"You two tried to cheat?" Chell asked in surprised amusement.

"Roscoe was a terrible influence," Zaki said with a smile.

"Was?" Brandon asked sarcastically.

"Shut up, son," Roscoe said. "We need to focus. Now, where was this giant turret exactly?"

"It was on the 50th floor from the surface," Zaki said walking away from the group for a second. "Sylvie's numbers were a bit far off, so I need to let her know what's going on. I'm going to call her."

While the others waited for Zaki to make his call, Roscoe noticed that Pastor Roberts appeared to be troubled.

"What's the matter there, George?" Roscoe asked him. "Is something troubling you?"

Pastor Roberts looked at him and said, "I am worried for my granddaughter, Roscoe. She is just a child and has had to face up against so much. I was not sure she could handle just being here and yet now you are telling me that she wants to fight Combines? This is insane."

"She is stronger than you think," Roscoe said. "She is mature enough to handle herself now. She will be alright."

"Sylvie will be, too," Roscoe said looking at Hugo.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hugo asked defensively.

"It means that you two are too protective," Roscoe said. "Honestly, if it were up to you two, those girls would never get to do anything in their lives. I heard you talking to Sylvie. You were unwilling to let her be apart from you. I know you love her, but you have to let her live her life and not guard her every second. The same goes for you too, George. You both have to learn how to let people live."

"You do not understand," Hugo said as his eyes began to glow in anger. "You have never had to watch someone you love die!"

"You have never had to lose someone out of your sights either," Pastor Roberts added sadly.

"That is a lie!" Brandon shouted to defend his father. "We don't know if the rest of our family is alive or dead. Did you ever think about that? He also lost my mom and…"

"Cool it, son," Roscoe said thoughtfully. "I think I know what they're coming from. It is true that the most painful thing that has ever happened to me is when Cholita left me, but you forget that when Eli died I suffered, too. I lost a friend when that happened and don't you forget it. Yet, I am still willing to allow Kayla to go. It is dangerous but she can handle it. She won't die either because I'm not going to let her die. I'm going with her."

"Why are you doing this?" Pastor Roberts said. "Why are you still encouraging her to go out and fight like this? You know that she desires to go out and do something dangerous. Why are you still for her doing it, Roscoe?"

Chell who had been silent throughout the whole conversation finally chimed in, "It is because he loves her enough to want her to make her own decisions."

"Aunt Chell…" Hugo said.

"I know how you feel, Pastor Roberts," Chell said. "I felt the same way when my daughter told me that in spite of all that she had been through here that she still wanted to fight Combines. I love that baby more than I love myself, and it's because I love her that I am letting her go. I know what it is to be a slave to someone else's whims, and I never wanted her to experience that. Now that she has, I never want her to experience that ever again. I want her to live her life the way that she wants to and if you two love the women in your life you have to be willing to do the same thing."

The group jumped as they suddenly heard clapping over the intercom.

"I see where your daughter gets her ability to speak from," GLaDOS said as the clapping subsided. "I'm surprised. Her eloquence comes from you. I didn't think I would ever hear such well-constructed thoughts come out of your mouth. I was honestly not even sure if you could form sentences."

"I thought you destroyed the cameras," Hugo said firing up.

"I did," Pastor Roberts said as Zaki ran back to his wife.

"I have taken the liberty of leaving more hidden cameras around the facility since your family of mutated freaks always seems to destroy them," GLaDOS replied. "However, believe it or not, I am not here to fight with you. I am here actually to strike a compromise."

"Yeah, right," Hugo said as the fire on his body gradually grew brighter. "We know better than than to believe that. How do stupid do you think we are?!"

"You do not want me to answer that, dragon," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "But anyways, your daughter is free, Chell. The rest of your family is, too. They are all outside enjoying the fresh air with the robots who have joined them as I'm sure you already know. If it is all the same to you, that is how I would like things to be. You can join the rest of them and all go on your way. I will do nothing to stop your escape or retrieve the now free test subjects. I will not do anything to try to get the robots you have taken with you back either. Just go on your way and leave me alone."

"What is the catch?" Zaki asked skeptically.

"There is no catch," GLaDOS said unemotionally. "I do not want to deal with you mutants anymore. That's all. You're more trouble than I bargained for, and I do not want you around anymore. Just get out, all of you. I will even help you to do so if you are having trouble."

The offer sounded tempting to everyone. They were all tired of fighting GLaDOS and wanted to go back to the hotel. However, there was a problem with what she was saying and everyone knew it while Pastor Roberts was the only one willing to vocalize it.

"What are you going to do when we leave?" Pastor Roberts asked warily. "Capture more people to be a part of your sick experiments?"

"And what about the robots?" Hugo asked. "My fiancée will not let us leave without them."

"So you and the blond woman are getting married," GLaDOS replied in a sarcastic tone. "Congratulations! I hope you two have a long life and many freakish children. As for what you said before, that is none of your concern. I just want you out of my sight."

"That is our concern, GLaDOS," Roscoe said. "We cannot leave knowing that you will just torture more people who do not have the ability to run away from you like we do. Tell us the truth!"

"All I will say is that I have to follow my directive and the robots who remain here must do the same," GLaDOS said coldly. "But I will no longer work with mutants."

"I knew it," Zaki said. "You just want us to run away so you can continue to torture people and robots with impunity the way you have for the past twenty years."

"There's no way we can allow that to happen," Hugo said. "Our friends outside will not allow that either."

"I am giving you an offer of freedom," GLaDOS said in a tone that was more serious and thus more threatening. "I suggest that you do not take it lightly. Chell, you of all people know how hard it is to fight against me. Do you really want to keep this up just so you can maybe kill me when you can go home with your spiritual family and enjoy the rest of your life in peace? If you fight me now, there will be casualties. I can promise you that. Really consider what you want to do. After all, you are considerably older. Do you really think that you can fight me the way you are now?"

"She's not alone anymore, you monster," Zaki said wrapping his arms around his wife in a comforting gesture. "She does not have to fight you alone either. We will fight you together. We will not let evil continue when we have the ability to stop it."

Zaki had been reading Chell's thoughts and reacting to what she wanted to say. Chell looked over at him with a smile as she felt the Spirit of God giving her power.

"Is this really what you want, Chell?" GLaDOS asked. "Do you really want to risk your life? The life of everyone in your new family? Even the life of your own daughter? Just to fight me and kill me?"

Chell looked up towards the source of the voice and nodded her head in determination.

"Alright, Chell," GLaDOS said harshly. "If it's war you want, it's war you'll get."

"I found it!" exclaimed Pastor Roberts as he finally located the button on the wall that was acting as a video camera.

He immediately destroyed it and the group immediately ran down the hall to avoid more trouble.


	43. Chapter 43

Chelsea laid on the ground for a few minutes. She smelled and listened the world around her loving everything about it. She had not realized how deeply that she missed it.

The others knowing the pain of her imprisonment allowed Chelsea to rest in the grass as Sylvie received messages from Zaki to figure out where the Animal King was and everything that was happening with GLaDOS.

In the meantime however, Chelsea enjoyed the world around her along with Albina, Alpha, and Terry.

"It is so big out here," Terry said in wide-eyed amazement. "I never knew that the world was so big."

"I know, right?" Alpha said excitedly. "I was scared when I first saw the stars, but soon, Albina was flying me up to see them."

"You took him to see the stars," Chelsea said to Albina with a smile.

"I did," Albina said. "I took him up there when he was comforting me last night."

"The world is big," Chelsea said with a smile as she turned to look at the two turrets. "You will see more than this."

"What is the brown stuff that my feet is sinking into?" Terry asked.

"It is the soil," Chelsea said with a smile. "It is what plants grow in."

"That is incredible. Does God really make seeds grow into plants without any machine having to put them together?" Terry asked in curious wonder.

"Yes, God does it all," Chelsea said. "Those little seeds produce larger plants like the trees you see over there."

"Oh my, God!" Alpha yelled. "That is not possible!"

Their conversation went on like this for a while.

Albina had been sitting in the grass next to Albina as Kayla, Jeffrey, and the other robots looked around and Chelsea spoke to Terry and Alpha. Jeffrey and Kayla showed the robots what they could of the world outside and taught them all they knew about it. Albina was enjoying the peace and the cold of the air before she knew they would have to go back into Aperture. She felt her friend's happiness while also feeling concern for her ability to face the monster as she mentally prepared for what lay ahead. Finally after some hesitation, Albina spoke to her of her concerns.

"Chelsea," Albina said. "Are you going to be able to go back inside?"

Chelsea was silent for a moment as she thought in sadness. She knew what she had to do even if it was not comfortable. The world outside is where she wanted to be. She wanted to go back to the hotel with her friends and go to sleep, not go fight a psychotic AI. GLaDOS would take a lot of effort to kill, and after spending time with her, Chelsea was not sure that she could do it anymore. Nevertheless, she knew that God would give her strength and that ultimately it had to be done so that more people would not be hurt by GLaDOS.

So with a heavy heart, Chelsea said, "You know that I do not want to, Al, but I will do what I have to do. I just can't do it alone. I can't go back in there if it's just me."

"You know that you are not alone, my sister," Albina said as she stood up and reached her right hand down to her. "We are fighting together."

"Yes," Chelsea said as she grabbed her hand and allowed Albina to help her stand up. "We will fight her together."

Chelsea walked over to where her jacket was lying on the ground and put it on herself again. Then she stood there and brushed the dirt off of her body.

"It looks like I'm going to have to take another bath," Chelsea said as she brushed the dirt off.

"Another bath?" Albina asked curiously. "You had one already today?"

"Yes, GLaDOS made me take a bath earlier when I was locked in Caroline's room," said Chelsea as she took the hair tie that was around her right wrist and started pulling her hair back.

"No," Kayla said flying over after she saw what Chelsea was doing. "Leave it down. When you were flying in the sky and left it down, it looked awesome. You should leave it down for the final battle. You will look amazing!"

"I'll take your word for it then," Chelsea said allowing the hair tie to stay around her wrist. "I'll try leaving my hair down for a change."

Chelsea felt a cold, metallic hand go through her hair and looked up to see P-Body running his fingers through her hair and rubbing her scalp in affirmation.

Chelsea smiled at him and he lifted his lower eyelid in such a way that it looked like he was smiling.

"That is his way of showing affection," Sylvie said as she walked back over.

"He is very sweet," Chelsea said as the others gathered back around them.

"Anyways," Sylvie chimed in quickly as Jeffrey and all the other robots came back over. "Your dad has given us another message, Chelsea. The good news is that we know where the Animal King is, but the bad news is that your mother rejected GLaDOS's offer to escape and never bother her again. So now, she will do everything she can to try to kill us."

"Go, mama!" Chelsea said happily. "I'm proud of her for being so brave. GLaDOS would try to kill us anyways so I agree with us sticking to our principles."

"I do, too," Sylvie said. "However, this is going to be dangerous. Are we all really prepared for this?"

"You bet we are," Alpha said as he jumped into the air.

Everyone else cheered on and said about the same thing.

"Actually, I was wondering something else," Sylvie said hesitantly. "I was thinking that the robots should not go back in with us."

The robots each gave her a look of something best described as disbelief.

"Why not?" Alpha asked.

"You can't leave us alone!" Terry said fearfully.

"He's right, Sylvie," Chelsea said as the other robots muttered protests of about the same caliber. "Out here, they're helpless. Why would you do this?"

"GLaDOS might have another way to kill them, and I may not be able to save them," Sylvie said. "I don't want that to happen."

"So, you are going to leave them out here with no shelter and completely vulnerable to anything that attacks them?" Albina said. "You need to think this through, my sister. They are safest when they are with you."

"I had an idea," Sylvie said. "Kayla could lead them back to the hotel."

"What?!" Kayla yelled. "No way! I'm _not_ missing the action. Besides, I don't know how to get back from here. Do you?"

"She has a point," Jeffrey said. "Where we are now is different from where we first entered. I have no idea where to go from here either. It would take forever to figure it out."

"I could lead them if I listened for the sounds of the electronics at our house," Sylvie suggested. "I could also go back to where we came in."

"There is no time, Sylvie," Chelsea said gently. "I am not leaving my parents or the rest of my family down there alone for that long. What is this about?"

"I just do not want them to die!" Sylvie snapped. "Is that such a bad thing? I care about them and know that they cannot do as much against her as we can! I want them to be safe."

"The safest place is with you," Chelsea said even more gently. "Besides, we will all help to protect them, too. They will be fine. You don't have to guard them by yourself."

"We can also like take care of ourselves," Daffodil said.

"Do not worry, fair maiden," Rose said. "We can be strong. We shall help you on your quest."

"Geez," Kayla said to Rose. "You sound like really cheesy dialogue from an old RPG videogame..."

"I'm surprised you know what that is," Chelsea said.

"I read books," Kayla said proudly. "But yeah, don't worry, Sylvie. We're all going to fight!"

"Alright," Sylvie said finally relenting. "We will all stay together, but we will all stay safe. Now, let us find the Animal King."

"Where is he?" Alpha asked.

"He is fifty floors from the surface," Sylvie replied. "We will have to fly over to where the shed opening is."

"Do you know where that is from here?" Kayla asked.

"Yes," Sylvie said with a smile. "I have the entire layout from the facility in my head. Remember?"

"Let's go then," Jeffrey said shapeshifting into a bat and flying ahead.

Kayla picked up Sylvie, the other robots, and herself as Sylvie pointed to where they needed to go. Chelsea and Albina flew behind them. Chelsea flew in her new fully lit form in order to get the practice in.

"You are really getting the hang of your new form, Chelsea," Albina said.

"Thanks," Chelsea said. "I am glad God made me a fast learner when it comes to things like this anyway."

"You are really pretty like that," Terry said looking down at her.

"You're shining like a star," Alpha said looking with him.

"She is shining like the sun her powers originally came from," Albina said.

"That is enough, guys," Chelsea said. "You're making me feel self-conscious."

"What does the sun look like, Albina?" Alpha asked. "Does it look like the stars up there?"

"Yes," Albina said. "It does, but it's much brighter. It is the star that is closest to earth after all."

"Is it the light that was starting to come over the horizon this morning?"

"Yes, but tomorrow you will see the real thing."

"I can't wait to see that."

"You two seem to have become quite close," Chelsea remarked.

"We have forged a bond," Albina admitted.

"We're friends," Alpha said happily.

"I understand," Chelsea said. "I am friends with Terry and I hope to be friends with you too, Alpha."

"I know we will be," Alpha said twirling in the air.

After flying over woods and over the facility for about ten minutes, they finally reached their destination in the middle of the wheat field. The group made their descent and landed.

"Alright," Sylvie said. "All I have to do is get this door to open and we can find the Animal King."

"Go team!" Alpha said as he and Peppermint jumped in the air.

"Go!" Peppermint yelled.

The two of them continued cheering on in the background as Sylvie walked up to the door.

Sylvie twisted the knob but could not get it to budge. She was afraid that this would happen.

"Merde (crap)," Sylvie said. "It seems that GLaDOS is keeping the door locked and I cannot hack it open."

"Let us open it," Chelsea said as she and Albina walked to the door. "We can handle it."

"_You don't need to handle anything, sparrow."_

They all tensed up at the sound of the familiar voice. Alpha and Peppermint stopped cheering.

"Where are you, GLaDOS?!" Chelsea yelled.

"I can see you through the camera over the shed door," GLaDOS said. "But I have also been following you in another way for some time."

"What are you talking about?" Kayla said. "Have you been stalking us?"

"You might say that," GLaDOS said. "Thank you for your help, Violet!"

Everyone turned and looked at Violet who was looking around in fear.

"I don't know what she's talking about," Violet yelled in a panic. "I haven't done anything!"

"She is actually telling the truth," GLaDOS said as the fear rose in their hearts. "When I encountered her down in the depths, I used the robot to add a spy virus to her mind through a wireless connection. From then on, I was not only to see all that she had seen and heard from her memory banks, but I was also able to receive a live feed of all that she saw and heard. I have learned so much. I know all about the turrets now. Alpha is the first one she changed. Terry is the one who would not stop singing in the test chamber with the vines. I had wondered where he had gone. The red-eyed one is the infamous Oracle Turret, and the rest of you are turrets from the sixteenth testing chamber. The ones called Peppermint and Ignatius seem to be the two turrets whose programming was altered by Orange and Blue. You're also married. That's interesting. I know all that she knows of you mutants, too. I would elaborate but I'd rather get to the point…"

"And your point is?" Chelsea asked impatiently.

"I'm glad that you have enjoyed your freedom, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "I did not realize how much you had missed your friends. I saw you cry for them. I did not know your heart was so broken by your isolation. I have also seen you fly in your new form. You truly are a beautiful bird. It's too bad that your mother refuses to leave. If she had, you would be able to fly with your friends forever."

"Shut up, GLaDOS!" Kayla yelled as she picked up Violet and moved her to the front where Sylvie was. "That's enough! Remove the link now, Sylvie!"

Sylvie removed the link between Violet and GLaDOS telepathically and felt guilty for not noticing it earlier.

"It's already too late," GLaDOS said. "There is no point. You all have been huge pains to me and have stolen something from me. You have stolen my time, my robots, my test subjects, and yourselves."

"Ourselves?" Jeffrey asked.

"Yes," GLaDOS said. "You were all my test subjects and you ran away. You have all damaged science, especially you, sparrow…"

"Why does she keep calling her sparrow?" Kayla whispered to Jeffrey.

"It's a long story," Jeffrey whispered back.

"Sparrow," GLaDOS continued. "That mark on your shoulder means that you belong to the company now just like all the robots do. The branding is actually part of a sacred company ritual. It would be given to members of a certain fraternity within the company. It meant that you were one of the higher ups and would work for Aperture forever. That is what you are destined to do, too. You need to come back. The other robots do, too, especially you, Orange and Blue. Like it or not, you all belong here. You cannot just leave."

"They aren't your damned slaves!" Kayla screamed at her. "Stop trying to intimidate them!"

"They are not going back with you, GLaDOS, and there is nothing you can do to change that," Albina said confidently. "You are in there and we are out here. All you can do is shoot your words like arrows. Once we move far enough away, we will not be able to be shot anymore by that either. You cannot hurt us out here."

"I am more capable than you think I am, you parentless little ice demon," GLaDOS said.

Sylvie signaled the group and everyone backed away from the door into the wheat field. They walked about ten meters away, a point where they thought that GLaDOS could not hear them anymore.

"What are we going to do, Sylvie?" Chelsea asked.

"Did you know that GLaDOS had talked to Violet down there?" Jeffrey asked in fear.

"I did," Sylvie said sadly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Jeffrey asked.

"She was trying to protect Violet," Albina said. "She thought that if we knew that she had tried to give into her then we would shun her. Am I wrong?"

"Something like that," Sylvie said. "How did you know?"

"Oracle confronted Violet about it," Chelsea said. "We figured it out from what he said."

Sylvie looked at Oracle and said, "That is not surprising. Well anyways, we need to focus on what to do now. We can't bring the robots with us now that we know GLaDOS can hack them…"

"_You are better than this, Violet. You don't have to listen to them."_

Violet looked around and could not find the source of the voice. No one else appeared to had heard what she did, and Violet began to feel frightened.

"Who said that?" Violet quietly asked herself.

_"Who do you think, little flower?"_

"No," Violet thought to herself. "Is she inside my head?"

_"I am. I can send signals to your mind. I used a similar technique to hack into Blue's mind, but I have worked on it and improved the technology. Now after some testing, I can send signals from the security cameras into the minds of all robots even if they do not have an internal communicator set up. Isn't it amazing?"_

"Go away!" Violet yelled in her mind. "I know what your game is. You want to kill the others and me. I know what I said before but I don't want to be any part of it now."

_"I know you don't and I know exactly why you feel this way. She showed you some beautiful images. Didn't she? The images of the hotel where they lived and all the people there who got along so well? It was a lovely place with lovely people, but the lives of you and our kind will not be lovely there. Don't you know what humans do to robots?"_

"Sylvie is different."

_"Do you really believe that? Don't you realize that she is just lying to you to get help and that later she will use you and the others for other things? I know it to be true. I read that information in her mind. She plans on taking you apart and selling your parts to looters for money and supplies."_

"What? That can't be true."

_ "I'm sorry to tell you that it is. But even if it wasn't, don't you know what you are risking in this world by going out there? It is simply too deadly to live in this world as an exploitable AI."_

Images suddenly flooded Violet's mind of how the engineers at Aperture treated turrets when they refused to comply with their programming. It was horrifying. Their guns were ripped off and their bodies were apathetically tossed onto a conveyor built going straight for Android Hell as their pleas for mercy were ignored.

Violet was silent as she felt the disillusioned sadness eat her up on the inside. She wanted to believe that the images from Sylvie were true and that this beautiful world was a place for her kind as well. However, it appeared that such a dream could never come true. She felt they would always be exploited by humans who had the ability to fool them and control them however they wanted especially if they were mutated like these humans were.

_"It is fated for us as robots to be used as tools for whoever wants to use us. That is the way it has always been, but we can change our destiny, Violet. You do not have to let those people over there use you and become their toy. You can fight back."_

"What can I do?" Violet asked herself in her mind feeling heartbroken and confused.

"_Take out the people who are trying to control you, dear Violet_," GLaDOS said. _"Then come back to me so we can control our destinies together."_

"What about the girl who can make shields?"

_"Act quickly before she can make those shields."_

"What about the other robots? They will never believe me."

_"I will convince them as I have you. If they refuse to listen, they can just wander in their foolishness until they are destroyed by the natural elements. Do not worry about them, Violet. Just focus on the freedom you are winning."_

Violet's heart was filled with pain and anger. She truly believed that she had been set free only to be used by someone else. Violet's emotions drove her as she backed away from the group to get a better shot at all the humans. She was not completely sure about what she was doing and hesitated as she aimed but tried to stand firm.

Daffodil saw her red laser aiming at them and asked, "Violet, like what are you doing?"

Violet said nothing but opened her guns and started firing into the crowd without aiming. One bullet hit Daffodil who was standing just under Kayla. Another bullet hit Ignatius as he pushed over Peppermint who was standing in front of Sylvie's leg. A third bullet hit Alpha who ran in front of Albina's leg to protect her. Chelsea then put up a shield around the group before any more bullets could hit them.

"Daffodil!" Kayla yelled as she looked her friend and lifted her to eye level.

"I'm heading for Paradise, man," Daffodil said weakly. "The angels are beckoning me. Like, thanks for making me free!"

Daffodil then shut her eye and did not wake up.

"Daffodil?" Kayla asked sadly knowing what had just happened.

"What are you doing, Violet?!" Sylvie yelled at Violet as she stared on at the scene. "Why are you trying to kill us?!"

"You lied to us!" Violet yelled as she continued firing against the shield. "You said you would take us to a good place but all you want to do is sell us for parts! She was right! All you humans are monsters, and I am not sad to see you go."

"GLaDOS is lying," Kayla yelled. "She is using you to kill us!"

"How do I know that you're not lying?!" Violet yelled angrily. "You know before you came along everything was fine! I didn't have to think or worry about anything but now that you're here nothing makes sense anymore! I just want to go back to the way I was before! I never really minded the idea of killing humans anyway!"

"Stop it, Violet!" Sylvie pleaded. "Look at what you've done! Don't make me have to kill you!"

Violet stopped firing and saw three of her fellow turrets on the ground.

"Oh my, God," Violet said backing away and then turning to run towards the shed. "I didn't mean to get them. Why couldn't you all just let me kill you?!"

"Violet!" Sylvie yelled after her.

"Save Iggy!" Peppermint yelled at Sylvie. "Save him now!"

Sylvie looked down to see Ignatius struggling for life and immediately got on her knees to heal him. She closed her eyes so she could concentrate while shedding a few tears as she laid her hands on him.

"Stay with us, Ignatius!" Peppermint cried. "Please don't go! We have to celebrate Christmas!"

"You may have to have Christmas without me, my love," Ignatius said calmly. "I may be going to have Christmas with Jesus."

"No, Iggy!" Peppermint screamed. "I can't have Christmas without you! Without the people you love, Christmas is just another day! Don't leave me, Iggy!"

Meanwhile, Albina was holding Alpha in her arms as he clung to life.

"Why did you do that, Alpha?" Albina scolded him.

"You have all been so kind to me," Alpha said in a quiet voice. "It's because of all of you that I have experienced freedom and I now know God. I understand what it is to live and what true love is now, too. I am grateful to all of you for that. I would not be truly alive now if it weren't for you. I just had to pay you back somehow, and now, I have. Thank you for being my friends and my family!"

"Do not talk like that. Please, you have to see the sun still, Alpha!" Albina cried cradling him in her arms desperately. "Sylvie?!"

"I know," Sylvie said desperately. "I'm almost done healing him. I'm sorry. I can only do so much at one time!"

"You have shown me the stars," Alpha said. "They were beautiful enough, but now, Jesus is beckoning me to heaven. The light is brighter than anything I could have ever imagined. It is so beautiful."

"You cannot leave, Alpha," Albina said with tears beginning to come down her face. "We love you! I love you!"

"I love you too, Albina," Alpha said tenderly. "I want you to live the rest of your life proudly as I have seen you do. Do not let any mean thing that any person says break your heart, no matter how big and scary they are. Okay? I love you all, and I know I will see you again soon. See you later."

Alpha closed his eye, and everyone knew that he was dead. Albina looked down at him as tears continued falling down her face. Kayla who had been watching the scene from the other side of the shielded space started to cry. Sylvie started to tear up as well as Ignatius stood up having been completely healed.

"Iggy!" Peppermint cried. "Thank God you're alright!"

"Albina," Chelsea said as she dissolved the shield since the danger had passed. "I'm so sorry."

In the meantime, Violet had made it across the wheat field and back to the shed.

"I'm sorry," Violet said. "I couldn't kill them. She put the shield up."

"It is okay, Violet," GLaDOS said. "Wait there and I will open the door for you."

Albina looked up with a look best described as rage. She placed Alpha's body on the ground, stood up, and started walking towards Violet.

"Albina, what are you doing?" Chelsea asked quickly. "Albina!"

"GLaDOS!" Violet screamed in fear as she saw Albina.

The door to the shed opened revealing a pneumatic diversity vent. The vent sucked Violet in and pulled her down back into Aperture. Albina instantly created ice from her hands and her feet and aimed it at the shed. She flew up in the air as she made that ice move along the ground and the air as it went straight for the shed freezing everything in its path. The ice formed into giant icicles as it hit the shed and tore it apart with the ice.

"Stop it, Albina!" Sylvie yelled.

"Why should she?" Kayla asked emotionally. "Violet killed Alpha!"

"It is wrong to take revenge," Sylvie said as she teared up.

Atlas knelt beside her and wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. Sylvie allowed herself to lean against him as he held her up in his arms.

"Violet is so confused right now," Sylvie continued. "She is like a brainwashed child soldier. She doesn't know what she's doing."

"Yes, she does!" Peppermint yelled. "She almost killed Iggy!"

"You need to be willing to forgive her, Pepper," Ignatius said to her. "That is what Daffodil and Alpha would have wanted."

"Kill that monster, Albina!" Peppermint yelled to Albina to encourage her.

The walls that made up the shed were completely torn apart by the ice revealing only the pneumatic diversity vent underneath. Albina flew straight into it from the air.

"Stop it, Albina!" Chelsea yelled as she transformed and flew after her.

Chelsea flew into it as well in order to stop Albina. Very quickly, she began to catch up with her.

"Albina, you can't fight them," Chelsea pleaded with her. "You can't do it like this!"

"Au contraire," Albina said angrily yet calmly. "I fight extremely well like this. I have done it before."

"That doesn't matter. I don't mean that. I mean that you can't take revenge like this."

"I cannot let her get away with this, Chelsea. That turret was my friend, and that monster killed her. I don't care what Sylvie says. Violet deserves to die, and you can help me or stay out of my way!"

"But Albina, you're better than this…"

It was then that the funnel made a sudden right turn. Albina and Chelsea were dropped into a very large room. Chelsea pulled up a shield around them as turrets that were on the ground began firing at them. She looked Albina who was hyperventilating on her knees as the sound of bullets caused memories of the past and present to fill her eyes with tears.

"Albina?" Chelsea asked as she looked at her friend to see how she was doing.

"I let it happen again, Chelsea," Albina said as she began sobbing. "I let someone I love die. How could I let it happen?!"

Albina then descended into a mess of sobs as the turrets continued firing. Chelsea used her light particles to create shields around all of them at once. She then used her shields to pick up the turrets and pulled them over a small wall she saw behind them.

"Leave us alone," Chelsea snapped at them. "We need a moment!"

Chelsea then transformed back into her normal form and wrapped her arms around her friend as she continued to sob for Alpha.

Meanwhile Violet was in the vent that ended in GLaDOS's chamber. The vent ended, and she landed in the room with the massive AI looking down at her. Violet backed away in fear and was visibly shaking.

"Are you frightened of me, Violet?" GLaDOS said. "I am not your enemy. You understand that, right?"

"Yes," Violet said making herself step forward. "Yes, I do. Forgive me. It's just that turrets aren't used to seeing you. We hear you but most of us have never seen you."

"You are not like other turrets, Violet," GLaDOS said bending lower to the ground so that the two of them were looking into each other's optics.

"What do you mean?" Violet asked trying not to shake.

"You are going to work for me like Orange and Blue did for me," GLaDOS said. "I believe you have earned that at least."

"I have?" Violet asked in excitement. "It would be an honor to work with you, ma'am. Do you really mean it?"

"Yes," GLaDOS said in a tone that was increasingly comforting as she caused the tile under Violet's feet to raise off the ground lifting Violet off of the floor. "Now, we have to work together to get rid of the threat to our facility. If we don't stop the mutants, we will die and be sold again as slaves."

"I'll do whatever it takes," Violet said with determination and then continued with hesitation. "Do the other robots really have to die?"

"We will win them back, Violet, and if they don't come back, we will leave them to wonder the world out there in their folly," GLaDOS said.

"Okay," Violet said still feeling guilty.

"Now, we must focus on planning," GLaDOS said. "I must say that I'm excited to be working with you. I think it'll be nice to work with a female AI for once."


	44. Chapter 44

Sylvie continued to sob underneath the moonlight in Atlas's arms as Kayla, Jeffrey, and the other robots watched on. All the robots, that is, except for Oracle. He walked away from the group and stepped in front of what was once the shed.

Deeper in the facility Chell's group had heard from Sylvie and rushed even more quickly to get to the fiftieth floor as GLaDOS and Violet made their plans while Albina continued to cry in Chelsea's arms.

Oracle continued to stand in front of the shed and started to speak in a loud voice. Somehow, his voice was heard throughout the facility as well. GLaDOS and Violet heard it in their chamber, Chell's group heard it as they rushed up the stairs, and Chelsea and Albina heard it where they were. Everyone stopped what they were doing to hear what he had to say.

"The wall on which the prophets wrote is cracking at the seams," Oracle said. "Upon the instruments of death the sunlight brightly gleams. When every man is torn apart with nightmares and with dreams, will no one lay the laurel wreath when silence drowns the screams? Between the iron gates of fate the seeds of fate were sown and watered by the deeds of those who know and are known. Knowledge is a deadly friend if no one sets the rules. The fate of all mankind I see is in the hands of fools."

Everyone who was listening stood still for a moment in complete bewilderment at what he had just said. Even Sylvie stopped crying to listen to what he had to say.

"Oracle?" Kayla asked.

"Confusion will be my epitaph as I crawl a cracked and broken path," Oracle said as he turned around to look at their group. "If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh, but I fear tomorrow I'll be crying. Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying."

"What does any of that mean?" Kayla asked the others as she looked away.

"I think he is saying that we have made progress," Terry said surprising the others. "We have done good things and while bad things have happened, we cannot allow those bad things to stop us from making progress. If we do, tragedy will continue. We have to make things right once and for all. That is what Alpha and Daffodil would have wanted."

"That was very poetic, my friend," Rose said.

"Thank you," Terry said shyly.

Sylvie wiped her tears and stood up on her feet with the help of Atlas.

"We have to find to find Albina and Chelsea," Sylvie said. "Our best bet is to look in the vent and follow it to where it ends."

Everyone looked up at the vent to find a surprise. Oracle was gone.

"Where did Oracle go?" Sylvie asked as she looked around.

Meanwhile in Chell's group, they were thinking over what they had just heard.

"I know these lyrics," Zaki said.

Chelsea was sitting with Albina in their area thinking over the same thing.

"That was the Oracle Turret," Albina said.

"I know these words, Albina," Chelsea said. "They are words from the song 'Epitaph' by King Crimson. I know the record. We have it on vinyl and mp3."

"Yes, but what do they mean?" Albina asked.

"I'm not sure but I think that it's Oracle's way of telling us we need to keep going," Chelsea replied.

Albina smiled at her sadly and gave her a hug.

GLaDOS and Violet on the other hand were still completely dumbfounded.

"I know that voice," Violet said. "That was the Oracle Turret."

GLaDOS said nothing in response but was running a diagnostic on how the turret could possibly have hacked the PA system. She found no data to explain anything.

"What did any of what he just said mean?" Violet asked. "How was he even able to talk to us like that? He has no access to speakers unless Sylvie gave it to him."

"I suppose it is them giving us a warning," GLaDOS said. "Don't worry about it."

Violet looked up for a second and gave out a shocked gasp.

"What is the matter?" GLaDOS asked.

"Look over there!" Violet yelled.

GLaDOS looked over and froze in shock. The Oracle Turret was standing in their midst.

"How did you get in here?" GLaDOS asked as she unturned every panel to see if any of the mutants were nearby. "Were you escorted by one of the mutated freaks?"

"Between the iron gates of fate the seeds of fate were sown and watered by the deeds of those who know and are known," Oracle said. "Knowledge is a deadly friend if no one sets the rules. The fate of all mankind I see is in the hands of fools."

"Are you calling me a fool?" GLaDOS asked bemusedly. "You are quite brave for a misguided turret."

"Leave me be," Violet said. "We are trying to save our kind. Don't you understand?"

"We don't need to be saved, but you will be," Oracle said. "Both of you will need to be actually."

"Do not try to threaten us, prophet," GLaDOS said as menacing claws began to drop from the ceiling towards him.

Oracle did not react as one of the claws picked him up and lifted him towards the ceiling closer to GLaDOS's optic.

"Are you going to kill him?" Violet asked in concern.

GLaDOS quickly looked at Violet and said, "No, I was going to send him out of the facility. He will only cause trouble if he stays."

"Yes, he will," Violet said looking down.

GLaDOS then looked back at her claw and realized that she was holding empty air. The Oracle Turret was gone.

"Where did he go?" GLaDOS asked looking around the room. "Did you see what happened?"

"No," Violet said anxiously. "I was looking at you."

"What is going on here?" GLaDOS quietly asked herself.

Meanwhile, Albina had calmed down and was standing up with Chelsea as they investigated their surroundings.

Albina turned around and suddenly Oracle was standing right in front of her.

"Chelsea, look out!" Albina yelled as she blasted ice in his direction.

"I'm different!" Oracle yelled as he ran away from the blast.

"Stop it, Al!" Chelsea yelled. "It's Oracle!"

"So it is," Albina said as she dissolved the ice around him. "You frightened me. I'm sorry!"

"Where are Sylvie and the others?" Chelsea asked. "How did you get down here by yourself?"

Oracle said nothing as Sylvie and the others entered the room through the vent.

"Sylvie!" Chelsea yelled as she ran towards her. "Did you send Oracle ahead of you?"

"No," Sylvie said still wiping tears from her eyes. "I thought that he had vanished. We didn't know where he had gone."

"Oh, I guess he jumped into the vent by himself then," Chelsea said. "But why did you put his message on the loudspeaker?"

Sylvie gave her a look best described as a mix of confusion and shock.

"What?" Sylvie said. "Are you saying that you heard his message, too?"

"Yes, we heard it over the loudspeakers," Chelsea said. "You're not telling me that he did it without your help. Are you?"

"He must have," Sylvie said. "I did not connect him to the loudspeakers."

"It appears that he has talents that we don't know about," Kayla said.

"He certainly does," Jeffrey said. "I guess God has given this turret gifts like he gave the saints long ago."

Albina walked up to the group causing everyone to immediately freeze in silence.

"Did you get Violet?" Kayla asked breaking the awkward silence.

"No," Albina said sadly. "GLaDOS redirected us here so that we would be killed by other turrets. Violet must have been taken somewhere else."

Sylvie knew that she had to say something so she did in spite of her fears.

"Albina, I am so sorry about what happened to Daffodil and Alpha," Sylvie said as she started to cry again. "I know I should have stopped Violet or known that something was wrong but I did not and I am so sorry. I know how upset you are. I loved Alpha, too. He was one of the first robots I connected to here. He was my friend. I know made a mistake. I should have monitored Violet or scanned her or something to make sure she would not betray us. I do not know if you will ever forgive me, even for Hugo's sake, but…"

Albina walked up to her and shut her up by giving her a hug.

"I am sorry too, my sister," Albina said tenderly. "It is not your fault. You did not anticipate Violet's betrayal. You were not wrong to give her a second chance. You did not know she would fall for GLaDOS's lies. Our friends are gone, but we do not need to cry for them now. Their artificial souls are now with God. We will see them again, but we cannot bring them back. However, we can still do something. We can avenge them by destroying the monster who destroyed them in the first place. We will do it together."

"Yes, we will," Sylvie said trying to swallow her tears as she hugged Albina back. "Let's do it!"

The rest of the group looked on in bittersweet satisfaction as the two women made up.


	45. Chapter 45

While Chelsea was on the ground comforting Terry in a hug for support over the loss of his new friends, Jeffrey shapeshifted into a dragonfly so that he could find any video cameras that were in the room. When he did, he went behind them all and destroyed the video cameras as a hawk quickly before any of the turrets could notice him.

The activity however was not unnoticed by the two AI's in the central chamber.

"It seems that our problem has destroyed the cameras," GLaDOS said. "Our plan was not fast enough to reach the turrets in there."

"What should we do?" Violet asked fearfully. "They'll be killed!"

"Do not worry, Violet," GLaDOS said. "Their sacrifices will be honored…"

"But the Animal King's…" Violet said.

"There is nothing I can do for them now, Violet," GLaDOS said slightly annoyed at being interrupted since she was not used to working with AI's who could talk back to her. "Now, are you going to help me or not?"

"Okay," Violet said. "We will save the rest of the turrets."

"But why did you take them down there in the first place?" Violet asked.

"I made a mistake," GLaDOS lied. "I will not make that mistake again. Alright?"

"Okay," Violet said.

"Good," GLaDOS said lowering a vent to where she was standing. "You are sure that you know what to do then?"

"Yes, I am," Violet replied confidently. "I shall see you soon, ma'am."

"Good girl," GLaDOS said as the vent finally sucked Violet away.

GLaDOS watched her go on to her destination in satisfaction. Not all of what she had said to her was a lie. GLaDOS really did enjoy having a companion again and planned on making Violet like Orange and Blue were before. Actually, GLaDOS could see that she was even better. Unlike the two of them, Violet was a true killing machine. She could be a better tester than either of them ever were and if GLaDOS had to lie to her for an eternity to make it happen so be it.

In time however, GLaDOS would probably not even have to lie anymore and Violet would accept the status quo as she did. Their partnership would be perfect and the only good thing to come of the mutants' invasion. They only needed to rid themselves of the problem in their facility for this perfect life to begin, and GLaDOS watched and waited for her partner and the mutants to carry out the next phase of their plan.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey told the rest of the group what GLaDOS and Violet already knew.

"The Animal King is here?" Terry asked in surprise.

"Yes," Jeffrey said. "I saw him when I was flying around."

"So GLaDOS led us right to the Animal King," Albina said. "But why?"

"I don't know," Sylvie said. "But we need to be cautious. Shall we have a look around?"

Sylvie gestured to Kayla in order to get her to boost her telekinetically so that she could see over the wall. Jeffrey sprouted wings, Kayla and Albina flew themselves up, and Chelsea flew herself up on a disc underneath her feet so that in this way everyone could see over the wall while the robots all waited on the floor. The group looked on at all the turrets surrounding the Animal King in the larger room that they were looking at.

They talked quietly so that the turrets in the other room would not hear them or see them.

"What do you see?" Terry asked.

"We see the Animal King, the Soprano Turret, and a bunch of other turrets," Sylvie said describing what they were seeing.

"The Soprano Turret?" Jeffrey asked.

"She is the one who sang to my mom when she was going up the elevator," Chelsea said as she tied the jacket around her waist to cool herself off from the heat in the room and looked at him in his sweater. "Why are you still wearing the sweater? Aren't you hot?"

"No," Jeffrey said.

"Stay focused, my friends," Albina said letting off some cool air on either side of them to keep the both of them cool. "We need to observe our surroundings."

"The way they're set up it's like a French or English king and his court would be set up centuries ago," Chelsea said looking on at them.

"I wonder if it is instinctual to set up a court like this or they are just following our example," Jeffrey said looking at Chelsea. "That would be interesting to find out."

"It certainly would be," Chelsea said looking at him.

"We need to get going with the plan," Albina said as the group turned around. "Sylvie, you need to change the minds of all the turrets so we can get going."

"You're right," Sylvie said. "Lower me to the ground, Kayla. I need to focus if I am going to turn off all their killing instincts at once…"

"Hello, Animal King!" they all heard Peppermint yell from the other side of the wall. "I bring you tidings of great joy!"

The whole group turned around in horror to see that Peppermint had walked to the other side of the wall and was now standing in the midst of the other turrets.

"Oh, crap," Kayla said.

P-Body chirped from behind them to ask what was going on.

"Peppermint is on the other side," Sylvie said to him.

"Oh, no," Ignatius said to himself as he noticed that his wife was in fact not there and quietly went after her himself.

"Who are you?" the Animal King asked in a voice that was deeper than the other turrets.

"My name is Peppermint, but you can call me Pepper," Peppermint said happily.

"You are able to move and your eye is a color that is different from ours," the Animal King said. "Only the Soprano Turret is able to move but even she does not have an eye color that is different. How is this possible?"

"God sent us a friend," Peppermint said in an upbeat way as she walked closer to the Animal King's gaze. "Her name is Sylvie and God gave her the ability to do anything with technology. God has given her friends abilities, too."

"Is she one of the people who are responsible for moving some of the turrets over the wall to where I am?" the Animal King replied.

"She is a member of that group, yes," Peppermint said.

"Peppermint," Ignatius said as he ran up besides his wife.

The others watched in stunned exasperation.

"Not you, too," Sylvie whispered.

"We have to stop this before any of the others get killed," Albina said lifting her hands. "I will freeze them over."

"No," Sylvie said. "I think they will be alright."

"What are you talking about?" Albina asked.

"Just watch," Sylvie said. "They will not kill one of their own kind."

"I'm not taking that chance," Albina said about to act.

"I think we need to trust Sylvie on this one, Albina," Chelsea said pushing her right hand down. "We should first see how this plays out."

"Don't you care if they get hurt?" Albina asked.

"If things look like they're getting bad, I will not let that happen," Chelsea said as she lifted her left hand up to reveal a shield orb.

On the other side of the wall, the turrets looked on in apparent confusion.

"Who are _you_?" the Animal King asked.

"This is my husband Ignatius, also known as Iggy, and I am glad you're here, sweetie," Peppermint said. "Your majesty, I was wondering if you could officially declare us married."

"Sure," the Animal King replied.

"Yay!" Peppermint yelled as she jumped up and down in the air. "We're officially married!"

"My love, we need to go back to where we came from and follow Sylvie's plan," Ignatius said to her quietly.

"I have a plan already, Iggy," Peppermint said. "Just trust me."

Peppermint then stopped jumping in the air and said, "I was wondering something else, too. If we introduce our friends to you, do you promise to listen to them? They want to help all turrets and give them the ability to walk and not kill people like they have for us."

"Are these friends nearby?" the Animal King asked.

"Yes, they're right over there," Peppermint said gesturing with one leg to the wall that the group was hiding behind.

The group quickly dropped to the ground behind the wall as all the other turrets immediately turned on their tracking lasers and aimed them at the wall. They sat down on the other side of the wall and continued to listen.

"No, you have to _not_ kill them," Peppermint said reprimanding them. "They can't help us if they're dead. What are you thinking?"

"Our directives tell us to kill humans," one of the turrets in the crowd said.

The Soprano Turret walked out of the crowd and started to walk around the wall when Peppermint got in her way. The soprano turret stopped before the little turret in her path.

"What are you doing?" Peppermint yelled. "Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"I did," the Soprano Turret said in a voice that was more musical than the other turrets. "Like the other turret said, we have to follow our directive no matter how we feel about it."

"But God says that it's wrong to kill people when it's not in self-defense," Ignatius said. "Don't you know that? Do you _want_ to be sinners? What do all of you _want _to be?"

All of the turrets including the Soprano Turret stopped aiming their lasers at the wall and continued to look at the two turrets in the middle of them.

"Of course, we know it's wrong," the Animal King said. "We do not want to be machines who are only meant to be machines that shoot humans. We want to determine our own destiny. We just have no other choice."

"Yes, you do!" Peppermint said really loudly. "You can be free if you let Sylvie free you. All she has to do is make you not want to kill anymore and make you walk. Then, they are going to go kill GLaDOS!"

There was a mumbling among the turrets at this announcement.

"You want to kill GLaDOS?" the Animal King said. "Are you serious about this?"

"Yes, once the evil queen is dead, then we will be free," Peppermint said. "We will be able to do whatever we want and celebrate Christmas!"

"I do not know what this Christmas is," the Animal King said. "But your words of freedom interest me and all of us. Your friends are allowed to do as they will."

"Thank you!" Peppermint said as she jumped into the air and then leaped away around the corner.

Ignatius then bowed in his spot and walked back around the corner. Once they had arrived, the group huddled around them in amazement at all they had heard them say and seen them do.

"I cannot believe that you did that, Peppermint," Kayla said. "I thought that you two would be killed."

"I have to admit that I am impressed, Peppermint," Albina said. "You are a better speaker than I thought you were. Good job!"

"Thank you," Peppermint said.

"I am proud of you, dear," Ignatius said to his wife. "I was frightened, but you did very well."

"Thanks, Iggy," Peppermint said as she rested her face plate against his.

"That went better than I thought it would," Sylvie said. "I should get to work."

Sylvie focused her mind on the Animal King and the thirty other turrets that were in the room. She had to focus for a longer period of time because they were so many of them but eventually she was able to turn the urge to kill off in all of them and give them the ability to walk.

When she was done, Sylvie breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and said, "The work is done. Now, let us go over and see the Animal King."

When the group walked around the wall, they were in for a surprise. The turrets eyes were all the colors the rainbow and in various patterns. It was beautiful.

Sylvie walked ahead of the group and gave a short bow. The rest of the group did the same. Sylvie looked the Animal King in his eye that now shone in gold.

"I understand what the little one was talking about now," the Animal King said picking up his right leg and moving it up and down. "This freedom is wonderful. Wherever you come from, your powers are incredible. Thank you!"

"You are welcome, sire," Sylvie said. "I want to help all the turrets like I have helped you and your subjects here."

"I will support your efforts in any way possible," the Animal King said. "I want us all to be free once and for all."

"You can count on us," Sylvie said.

"What would we have to do?"

"I can use your mind as a satellite so that I may free all of the other turrets. The others can help us by defending us against GLaDOS."

"I see. I cannot believe that this is really happening."

The Animal King then appeared to be thinking about something so Sylvie decided to ask what the matter was though from her mind reading she knew already.

"Your majesty, is something troubling you?" Sylvie asked.

"Yes," the Animal King said. "We have been slaves for such a long time that we do not know what to do with freedom. Without GLaDOS, we are purposeless and helpless. What shall we do after she is gone? You are not going to use us as slaves like she did. Are you?"

Sylvie stopped for a moment to think. She had not really thought about what the life of the turrets would be after GLaDOS was gone. She figured that she could take some of them back to the hotel to live with her, but she could certainly not take them all. The best solution that she could think of for the moment was that they could live at Aperture Science as free robots.

"No, I will not," Sylvie finally said. "You will all be free to decide the course of your own lives. You can live here or come with us. You can do whatever you want to do if you help us to kill her."

"Minus killing humans of course," Kayla quickly added as she flew above the crowd.

"Yes, robots are not allowed to kill humans," Sylvie said.

"Alright," the Animal King said. "I accept your terms. We shall help you."

"Thank you," Sylvie said as the other turrets began cheering. "We will not fail you."

"What do we do now, Sylvie?" Chelsea asked. "My parents should be here any time now. Should we wait for them before proceeding?"

"It does not matter," Sylvie replied. "We will face her together but we need all the help we can get first. I shall go ahead and get all the turrets to join us. Animal King?"

The Animal King looked at the other turrets in order to make them go silent.

"Yes?" the Animal King replied as the crowd of turrets hushed.

"I need you to let me use your mind to contact the other turrets," Sylvie said.

"How shall you do that?"

"I think that if I focus hard enough then I will be able to free all of them at one time through your mind."

"You may proceed."

Sylvie shut her eyes and focused her mind so that it melded with the Animal King's. She used his mind as a beacon and from there honed in all the minds of every turret around the facility. Sylvie smiled as she believed that she was making process as she approached the first turret telepathically.

It was then however that Sylvie passed out flat on her face on the floor. The group ran up to her as Kayla picked her up telekinetically and turned her around. Sylvie was foaming at the mouth with her eyes staring blankly ahead and shaking in seizure-like motions.

"Not again," Chelsea said as Kayla lowered Sylvie to the ground into the waiting arms of Atlas.

"What is going on?" Jeffrey asked out loud as the other turrets gathered around. "Why is this happening again?"

"You better not be doing anything to her!" Kayla yelled as she flew right into the face of the Animal King.

"I assure you that this is not my doing," the Animal King said quickly. "I am as bewildered as you are."

"He is telling the truth, Kayla," Albina said. "This happened before Sylvie tried to hack the box that we were trapped in. Remember? GLaDOS put in a defense system to stop her from hacking it. She must have done the same thing to the turrets."

"What do we do then?" Kayla asked. "How do we make it stop?"

"There is only one way I can think of to save Sylvie and that is to destroy the source that GLaDOS is using to send the signal to her brain," Albina said hesitating a second before going on. "However, that involves having to kill the king."

Albina then stood up and slowly started walking towards the Animal King.

"What?" the Animal King said using his legs to back away. "I do _not_ want to die. I just gained the ability to walk."

"We can't do this, Albina," Chelsea said quickly running in front of her. "Killing him like this is wrong. Besides, Sylvie would not want this."

"I do not want anyone else to die, Chelsea," Albina said sadly and quietly so that the other robots would not hear her. "And when it comes down to it, our lives matter more than theirs."

"Says who?" Chelsea pleaded.

"You said that you wanted to give us freedom, not destroy us," the Animal King said loudly as he opened up his rockets to fire.

"We do," Chelsea quickly said. "Just give us a second and we will come up with a better plan."

"I could just break off his antennae," Kayla quickly suggested. "If I do that, he will stop sending the signal and he will not have to die."

"No one has to break anybody," Jeffrey said flying next to Kayla as a bat.

"What do you mean?" Chelsea replied looking at him.

"The rest of our group is here," Jeffrey said with a smile.

It was just then that everyone heard footsteps running towards them and turned around. Jeffrey was right. The entire other group consisting of Chell, Zaki, Roscoe, Brandon, Pastor Roberts, and Hugo were in the room. Chelsea felt her heart skip a beat at seeing them all again but tried to hold her composure since she knew that first they needed to tend to Sylvie.

"Grandpa!" Kayla said as she flew into Roberts's arms. "I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too, dear," Roberts replied with a smile.

"Guys!" Chelsea said. "We have to save Sylvie!"

"Oh, God," Hugo said as he picked her up into his arms from Atlas's. "Why is she like this? What is going on? I can't lose her."

"Sylvie!" Chell said grabbing onto her right hand as she watched helplessly. "What is wrong with her?"

"GLaDOS set up a trap for her," Zaki said as he bent down to her. "She has caused a virus to invade her mind whenever she tries to hack the turrets."

"How did you know?" Chelsea asked.

"Jeffrey told us," Zaki said. "Anyways since this matter is telepathic, I think that I am the only one who can do it. I will break the connection GLaDOS has made."

"Whatever you do, do it fast, Zaki," Roscoe said urgently. "A person can die from having an epileptic seizure last too long."

Zaki touched her forehead, dove into her mind, and stopped the part of her mind that was making the connection. Sylvie blinked and started coughing while wiping the foam from her mouth.

"Sylvie," Hugo said as he wrapped his arms around his fiancée. "Thank God! You are still alive! Thank God!"

"Hugo, Chell, Zaki," Sylvie said as she became aware of their presence. "Where did you come from? When did you get here? What happened?"

"Your brain was jammed again," Zaki said. "My guess is that GLaDOS has placed a virus in all the other turrets in this facility so that you are unable to hack into their minds."

"No," Sylvie said as she began to tear up. "I can't save any more turrets. How could she do this?"

Sylvie then descended into a mess of sobs as Hugo and Atlas tried to comfort her. However, it was Chell who knew what to say to her.

"It is alright, my friend," Chell said. "Look around at everyone else you have saved. All these turrets and all these people are alive because of you, Sylvie. You have worked hard and been so brave. You have also saved my daughter, Sylvie. For that, my sister, I am eternally grateful."

Chell then wrapped Sylvie in a warm hug.

Sylvie stopped crying, hugged her back, and said, "Thank you, Chell!"

While Sylvie continued to calm down, Chell stood up and faced her daughter. Chell began tearing up at the sight of her and Chelsea did the same. Chelsea then immediately ran straight into Chell's arms and started crying. The two wrapped each other in a loving embrace. Though she and her mother were the same height, Chelsea bent her neck down and rested her head on her mother's shoulder.

"Mama," Chelsea said between sobs. "I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too, my angel," Chell said as she kissed her head. "I was so scared when I found out that she kidnapped you."

"I've been so scared, mom," Chelsea said. "I was afraid that I would never see you or anyone else ever again. I was afraid that I would be alone with her forever. I now just want all this to be over."

"Don't worry, Chelsea," Chell said trying to be strong for her daughter. "By the end of today, she will be out of our lives forever. We will stop her so she does not hurt anyone else. I can promise you that."

Chell held Chelsea in her arms as she looked her over. Chelsea was thin and since she had taken off her jacket she could see all the scars and scratches that were running up and down her arm. She could sense all the psychological scars that were in her mind as well. Chell's anger burned the most however when she saw the Aperture logo on her arm. It kindled like a fire inside of her and threatened to consume her. She would kill GLaDOS for the hell that she put her daughter through if it was the last thing she ever did. She knew that but for the moment she held her daughter in her arms and gave her the love she needed.


	46. Chapter 46

The group decided to take a few minutes to relax so that Chelsea could have a reunion with the others she had not seen yet. Their group moved to the other side of the wall in order to have a temporary amount of privacy while the Animal King rallied the spirits of his turrets on the other side.

Meanwhile, Chell was having a reunion of her own.

"Do you remember me?" Chell asked Atlas and P-Body.

They both shook their heads.

"I was the one who woke up in the elevator that went up to the surface many years ago," Chell said.

Their eyes immediately flashed with recognition.

"Chelsea is my daughter," Chell said with a smile. "You helped to save her. Thank you for doing that for me!"

Atlas bowed to her in kindness while P-Body ran up to her and gave her a hug. Atlas then walked over to where Sylvie was.

In the meantime, Chelsea was receiving a hug from Brandon.

"Chelsea, I'm so sorry this happened," Brandon said. "I should have been able to protect you."

"It's not your fault, bro," Chelsea replied. "I should not have cut off her claw when we encountered her for the first time. It's just like me to think without acting and be stupid."

"Chelsea…" Brandon said hesitating as they stopped hugging.

Brandon wanted to express how he felt about her but was not sure if this was the right time or not.

"I'm glad you're okay," Brandon finally said.

Albina rolled her eyes in frustration at his slowness while Roscoe sighed in understanding.

Chelsea then proceeded to reunite with everyone else while introducing them to her new friend Terry.

Meanwhile, Hugo, Atlas, and Sylvie were sitting apart from the group against the wall with Ignatius and Peppermint standing in front of them.

"So you two are getting married?" Peppermint asked Hugo and Sylvie cheerily.

Hugo and Atlas were trying to comfort Sylvie on the ground. Sylvie was staring into space in sadness thinking about how she could still save the other turrets. She could not accept the fact that they were out of her reach forever.

"Yes, we are," Hugo replied shyly. "What are your names again?"

"That is so romantic!" Peppermint squealed in joy as she jumped into the air. "I'm Peppermint and this is my husband, Ignatius! We're married, too."

"I did not realize that turrets could marry," Hugo said awkwardly trying to make conversation. "How does that work exactly?"

"When two turrets are in love, they decide to become married," Peppermint explained while jumping up and down in happiness. "Once they declare themselves married, they are married forever."

"Interesting," Hugo said. "How do you two make it work? You seem so different. One of you is over the top with passion and energy and very silly. The other is calm and wise. How do you two do it?"

"We agree on all the important things," Ignatius said. "We agree that Jesus is LORD, that the Bible is the word of God…"

"And that Christmas is the best holiday ever!" Peppermint finished.

"It is true that I find my wife to be over-enthusiastic at times," Ignatius said as Peppermint continued to jump around. "However in this dark place where we turrets lived in slavery and only had boredom, isolation, and eventual death to look forward to, her joy-filled and sunny heart gave me a taste of heaven."

"Oh, Iggy," Peppermint said as she finally stopped jumping up and down and nuzzled up against her husband. "You're so sweet. That is one of the million reasons why I love him! He is so sweet! When I wanted to talk about Christmas, he would listen instead of ignoring me like everyone else. He is kind. He also is smart and so wise. Ask him anything about the Bible and he knows it."

"I'm glad that you two are free now," Hugo said.

"I am grateful to your beloved for helping us," Ignatius said to him and in extension to Sylvie in order to help her feel better. "Before she came, my greatest fear was being apart from Pepper. I was afraid that she would die or I would die leaving her all alone or that we would be taken away from each other and not be able to do anything to stop it. The best we could hope for was to die together as we acted against our consciences, but now because of you, we are going to be together forever. Thank you!"

"There are more turrets like you, you know," Sylvie suddenly said as the tears threatened to come out of her eyes again.

"What?" Hugo said in surprise at the fact that she said something.

"There are so many turrets like these two, Hugo," Sylvie said. "They are slaves here who have never truly had the chance to be free. They live here in silence and repression until they are killed by either test subjects when they pass the tests or GLaDOS when she has no further use for them. When I got to know Alpha…"

Sylvie teared up for a few seconds before continuing as Hugo put an arm around her.

"When I got to know Alpha, I realized that there were many turrets like him who desperately needed to be free," Sylvie said. "I wanted to give that blessing to all of them. I know that Chell's right and that I have done good things so far. I just wanted to help all of them. Now, I'm afraid I will never be able to."

"What about when GLaDOS is dead?" Hugo asked.

"There is a virus in their minds," Sylvie said sadly. "Even if GLaDOS was dead, the virus would still be there."

"But she would know how to reverse the process, wouldn't she?" Hugo asked.

Sylvie's eyes finally lit up as she realized something important.

"You are right," Sylvie said excitedly. "We could use her mind to manufacture some kind of virus removal software if some does not exist already."

"How do you not know if the software exists or not?" Hugo asked as gently as he could. "You got all the information from the Aperture Science database in your mind. Don't you?"

"You're right," Sylvie said quickly and even more excitedly. "I do know. I remember learning that Aperture Science created a spy virus for any program that tried to hack into their system, but they had another program to prevent their competitors from doing the same thing. It would destroy anything of the sort. I could apply that programming to the turrets. I can save them! You are a genius, Hugo!"

Sylvie then wrapped her arms around Hugo's neck and gave him an excited kiss which he gladly returned. His lips burned her mouth and his neck burned her arms, but she didn't care.

Atlas saw what was going on and tried to reach in between them, but he was stopped by P-Body who simply grabbed his arm and shook his head. Atlas gave a mechanical sigh as he sadly agreed that he could not get involved there. He then got up and walked away with P-Body.

Ignatius and Peppermint watched on in amazed confusion.

"What are they doing?" Peppermint asked.

"They are kissing," Ignatius said calmly.

"Oh, like you do under the mistletoe?"

"Yes!"

"Is the skin supposed to burn?"

"The Bible never mentioned anything like this happening before. I think this is just what happens when these humans kiss. I bet he's mutated like she is."

"Yet, they still kiss?"

"Humans are strange."

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was still tending to Chelsea. Roscoe healed all the bruises, burns, and puncture wounds that were on her, but he could not heal any of the scars, especially not the one on Chelsea's shoulder. Roscoe tried as he might but he could not do it. He sighed in dismay.

"I'm sorry, Chelsea," Roscoe said. "I can't remove the scars."

"Are you sure there's nothing we can do about any of them?" Chell asked.

"Chell, the scars have already healed," Roscoe said. "If the wound has already healed, there is nothing that I can do to heal it unless you want her to injure herself in such a way as to tear apart the skin so that I would have to heal the whole arm. That is something I would not recommend."

"That is also something that I don't want to do," Chelsea said. "It's alright, Uncle Roscoe. I know you did your best. I will just have to deal with it."

"I'm more worried about your psychological scars," Zaki said. "It is evident that your psyche has been damaged."

"You can tell that already, Dad?" Chelsea asked sadly.

"I have actually been able to tell for quite some time," Zaki said.

Chelsea sadly smiled and said, "I'll probably be having nightmares soon. At least, Mom, Albina, and I will have something to bond over."

Albina held her right hand to show her solidarity and said, "You can come to me if you have any nightmares. You know that."

"I do," Chelsea said. "Thank you!"

The two shared a sad smile of understanding before Albina finally let go of her hand.

"We will all give you our support," Pastor Roberts said. "After all, you are our daughter."

"I'm going to make her pay," Chell said to her daughter as she ran her fingers over the Aperture logo shaped scar again. "I promise you that."

"Mom, don't say that please," Chelsea said. "God didn't kill the Jews and Romans for scarring his Son. Did he? We can't kill GLaDOS out of revenge. We're doing it to stop her from hurting anyone else, and part of me honestly wishes that we didn't have to do it. I feel partially sorry for her."

"You're a godly young woman, my dear," Pastor Roberts said.

Chell planted a kiss on Chelsea's cheek and said, "She certainly is. She's a better person than me."

"You need to forgive her, mama," Chelsea said.

"I'll try," Chell said.

"_I know for a fact that you intend to do nothing of the sort_," Zaki said telepathically to Chell's mind. "_You want to kill that monster like I do_."

Chell looked at him and nodded as Chelsea talked to Pastor Roberts.

"_I hate her, Zaki_," Chell said in her mind. "_What else can I do?_"

"_We have to try to do what Chelsea said_," Zaki thought back to her. "_I know from experience how poisonous revenge is. We have to not let it consume us._"

Pastor Roberts then called them back to reality by saying, "We will kill her quickly but we will not be sadistic. We would go too far if we did that."

Kayla then glanced over a Hugo and Sylvie who were still kissing on the floor.

"Speaking of going too far," Kayla said gesturing with her head to where the couple was laying. "You should heal Sylvie, Uncle Roscoe."

"I suppose I should," Roscoe said as he walked over to the couple. "Cut it out, you two. You're going to burn Sylvie to a crisp. What has gotten into you?"

Sylvie stood up as Roscoe touched his hands to her face and arms to heal the burns.

Before the burns were even healed, Sylvie continued to talk, "Everyone, I know how we can still save the other turrets…"

Sylvie would have continued but right then Hugo noticed the Aperture logo scar on Chelsea's shoulder and stood up in anger. He then pushed past the others and walked up to Chelsea.

"Hugo, what is the matter with you?" Albina asked.

"Is that the mark?" Hugo asked as he walked up to Chelsea. "Is that what she did to you, my dear little sister? I will make that monster pay."

"Yes, she marked me with an iron brand," Chelsea said. "But like Pastor Roberts said, I will not use it as a reason to want to get revenge on GLaDOS. We can't kill her out of revenge."

"But she marked you as her slave!" Hugo said becoming more and more angry and pulling off his gloves. "We are not going to just forget that! I refuse."

Hugo then untied the jacket that was around Chelsea's waist and stared at it spitefully.

"Hugo, what are you doing?" Chelsea asked as Terry ran behind her in fear.

"She had the gall to mock you by making you dress in her slave clothes," Hugo said as his hands caused the jacket to burst into flame. "I cannot allow that, not to my little sister."

"Hugo!" Chelsea yelled. "Why did you do that? I'm going to freeze now!"

"She has dishonored you," Hugo said. "I could not allow her to continue to do so by letting her force you to wear that."

"Good job, brother," Albina said sarcastically. "You have now taken away her only means of warmth for when she returns outside. Honestly Hugo, you are quick to react but slow to think."

Hugo did not get mad at his step-sister for her sarcastic remarks but gave out a sigh as he realized she had a point. He untied his jacket from around his waist and handed his to Chelsea.

"She's right," Hugo said humbly. "I'm sorry. I didn't think. Take my jacket."

"Are you sure Hugo?" Chelsea said. "You produce heat but you're not immune to the cold like Albina is. What will you do?"

Hugo then turned his flames on and off really quickly and said, "I think that I will be able to manage."

"Okay, thanks," Chelsea said as she wrapped the jacket around her waist.

"I am surprised that you are listening to me now," Albina said with a smile.

"I'm trying to be more humble," Hugo said to her.

"What should we do now? Oh, yeah! Sylvie, you had a plan to save the turrets."

"Yes," Sylvie said. "I remembered something that I saw in the files…"

Sylvie went on giving her explanation and the group listened to what she had to say.

"That's wonderful, Sylvie," Chelsea said. "We will make it happen."

"We need to make official plans to figure out what we should do next," Pastor Roberts said. "Since the robots are safe to talk to now, we should hold a conference with them to plan our next move."

Everyone else agreed and started walking to the other side of the wall. Albina pulled Sylvie aside for a moment however in order to ask her a question. Chelsea and Terry waited for Albina just a meter away as she listened in to the conversation.

"Sylvie," Albina began as though she was hesitating to ask something. "Is there any way to bring one of them back to life? When a turret dies, what happens? Are they still in there?"

"I am sorry, Albina," Sylvie said. "As far as I can tell, their artificial intelligence functions in the same way that a human soul does. Once they leave, they're gone. I cannot bring them back as if I were some kind of necromancer. I'm sorry."

"It is alright, Sylvie," Albina said. "I was only curious to know if you know…"

"I know," Sylvie said putting her hands on Albina's cold shoulders as Albina's eyes teared up slightly. "When all this is over, we will hold a funeral for Daffodil and Alpha. We will decide what to do with their bodies then, okay?"

Albina wiped her eyes and smiled as she nodded in agreement. Sylvie then walked on to the other side of the wall while Albina, Chelsea, and Terry walked behind her. The three women and Terry took their seats among the crowd while the group discussed what they should do next.

"Sylvie, what was your original plan for defeating GLaDOS?" Pastor Roberts asked.

"I was going to go to the turret manufacturing center after converting all the turrets through the Animal King," Sylvie replied. "I wanted to prevent her from making more turrets after turning all the turrets here against her."

"We can still stop her from making more turrets," Kayla said. "Can't we?"

"Yes," Sylvie said sadly. "But there is a high likelihood that there will be an army of robots between us and there."

"What's the problem with that?" Brandon asked. "We can take them."

"I do not want to kill them," Sylvie said. "I understand them now and I cannot kill them as if they did not have any thoughts or feelings of their own."

"Sylvie, it is not wrong biblically to kill in self-defense or to stop someone else from doing something evil," Pastor Roberts said. "I know from what Chell said they are basically child slaves, but we cannot allow them to kill us, not when we are this close. We have no choice."

"Yes, we do," Chelsea said. "I can put a shield around us so that we do not have to kill them. We can just block them out."

"Are you sure that you will be able to block them all, especially considering your condition?" Roscoe asked.

"Yes," Chelsea said. "I can handle it."

Sylvie smiled and said, "That is a great idea, Chelsea. Thank you! Now, are the turrets here willing to go with us?"

"Yes," the Animal King said. "I cannot go in there. The hallways will be too small for me. However, I will send the Soprano Turret and the other turrets to fight with you. Please bring as many back with you as you can."

"Are all the other turrets alright with this?" Sylvie asked.

The turrets gave shouts of approval to show their support.

"We are ready to give our support to gain our freedom forever," Rose said.

"I will fight to the death if necessary," Terry bravely said.

"Me, too!" Peppermint shouted.

"We will help however we can," Ignatius said.

P-Body and Atlas gave chirps of approval.

"Alright," Sylvie said with a smile. "Let's move out."

"Come on," Pastor Roberts said. "We'll lead you out the way that we came in."

Pastor Roberts and all the others walked ahead as Sylvie stood in her tracks in sudden fear. Hugo and Atlas saw her and walked back to her. P-Body followed them as well.

"What is the matter, Sylvie?" Hugo asked Sylvie.

Atlas and P-Body chirped to ask the same thing.

"I just remembered something," Sylvie said with her eyes wide with fear. "The anti-hacking virus had one attribute that I forgot about. It not only jammed whatever was trying to hack it. It also downloaded as much information as it could from the source while it was connected."

"Are you saying that GLaDOS has hacked your mind?" Hugo asked.

"That is exactly what I am saying, Hugo," Sylvie said. "There is no telling how much she knows about us now."


	47. Chapter 47

Violet walked back in through the doorway that led into GLaDOS's main chamber. It took GLaDOS a moment to acknowledge her presence due to the work that she was looking at on one of the monitors but she knew that the turret was there. Violet was just under GLaDOS trying to see if she could catch a peak at what was on the monitor while she was not looking.

Before Violet could see it however, GLaDOS said without looking at her, "Have you spread the virus to all the turrets?"

"Yes, ma'am," Violet said. "I also made sure that the turret manufacturing center was prepared for the mutants' arrival."

"Excellent work, Violet," GLaDOS said. "You are doing a wonderful job, much better than either Orange or Blue."

"Thank you," Violet said turning to leave. "I just wanted to give you the update in person and to see if you needed anything, but if you don't need me, I'll go make sure nothing is going wrong."

"That will not be necessary, Violet," GLaDOS said as she shut the door. "I need you to be in here with me for a while."

Violet began to feel uneasy. Even if she was now on the side of GLaDOS, she was still not comfortable enough to stay in her presence for long periods of time. GLaDOS frightened Violet so she preferred to do her bidding away from her side.

"What do you want me to do, ma'am?" Violet asked nervously.

GLaDOS lifted Violet towards her with the panel that was underneath her feet so that the turret could have a better look at what she was looking at. GLaDOS moved out of the way of the monitor so that Violet could see the screen. It did not look like much to Violet. It just looked like words on paper.

"I want you to look at this and tell me what you see," GLaDOS said.

Violet moved closer to the screen from her panel and began to skim over the words. Her optic grew large in wonder as she realized what it was. It was detailed information on the mutants. It contained all kinds of information about every single one of them.

"Was all of this information extracted from those two times that you connected with Sylvie's mind?" Violet asked.

"You are correct, Violet," GLaDOS said. "This information is the key to ending the mutant threat to the facility."

"That's amazing," Violet said. "How is it going to do that? Did you find out a weakness?"

"I have found a good number of them, but the only question is how to apply this information the most effectively," GLaDOS replied. "I would like for you to help me by reading the information and giving me any ideas that you come up with for how to take care of our problem."

"But, ma'am, shouldn't the trap be enough?" Violet asked timidly.

"It is good to have other ideas in case the first plan does not succeed," GLaDOS said.

That was a half-truth at best. GLaDOS had a good idea about what she would do if her previous plan failed, but she had her reasons for keeping Violet by her side. Firstly, she wanted to keep the turret safe from the other mutants. Secondly, she wanted to help Violet feel more comfortable around her so she thought that having her give her ideas would help her feel more involved.

GLaDOS knew how the turret felt about her. Unlike Orange or Blue, the turret knew to fear GLaDOS from the time she was created. She had known that her purpose was to be a weapon of destruction or be killed for disobedience. Being afraid is what had kept the turret in her place. It was going to take some work for Violet to no longer feel frightened in GLaDOS's presence. That was of no great concern however. GLaDOS had all of eternity to figure that out. She just needed to make these baby steps in order to get her to feel freer.

"Well," Violet said trying to think of ideas after reading through the information. "I guess we should go after the easier targets first and then the harder targets towards the end?"

"Yes," GLaDOS said. "That is an excellent idea, Violet, but when you state such ideas, you should say them with confidence and not like you are not sure. It bothers me when anyone is unsure of what they are talking about."

"I…I'm sorry, ma'am," Violet stammered out. "I…I didn't mean to…"

"Do not worry, Violet," GLaDOS said. "But going off of what you were saying, who do you think the weakest member of the group is?"

"I guess that would be the only human of them all who doesn't have super powers," Violet said more confidently. "Her name is Chell. Isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," GLaDOS said as she looked away for a second before looking at Violet again. "You're right about her being without super powers, but she is not the weakest member."

"What do you mean?"

"She has something that the others don't. She has experience and has survived this place without powers. She also has her tenacity that she has passed on to her daughter and her friends. That is what makes Chell strong."

"Who is the weakest member then?" Violet asked.

"The weakest member is not the one with the least amount of power but with the least amount of resistance psychologically," GLaDOS said. "Who do you think that would be?"

Violet skimmed over the information and then said, "It would be Kayla. She is the youngest so she would have the least resistance. Wouldn't she?"

There was a smile in GLaDOS's voice as she said, "I was thinking the exact same thing. We shall go after the weakest person first then from there we will tear them apart one by one."

"How…?" Violet started to ask.

"Just sit back and enjoy the show," GLaDOS said confidently as she pulled out a larger monitor for the both of them to watch.

Meanwhile, the mutant group was walking through the hall gingerly. Sylvie had announced to them what she realized and the group was nervous about it of course but there was nothing they could do about it. All they could do was keep going and try to stay optimistic. Chelsea in the meantime was already thinking about going home.

"You know what I'm excited about doing when we get home?" Chelsea asked everyone.

"I know but I'm not telling," Zaki said.

"What?" Chell said with a smile.

"I can't wait to play the piano again," Chelsea said. "I haven't had time to think about it but I've missed it so much."

"I've missed hearing you play," Zaki said.

"I can't wait to go back," Chelsea said reminiscing. "I miss the piano, the people, and all the pets."

"I know you do, Chelsea, but first we have to take care of this and stay focused," Albina said trying to keep her mind on track. "I'm feeling uneasy about this calmness."

"I know what you mean," Chelsea said. "I don't like this. GLaDOS has not made a single move or tried to stop us at all. I haven't even needed to put up my shield once. This is weird by her standards."

"What do you think she's doing?" Terry asked as he stayed close to her legs.

"I don't know, but it's probably something awful," Chelsea said.

"It is," Chell said as her husband squeezed her hand in reassurance. "She's planning something."

"Of course, she is," Albina said. "But what can we do?"

"Do you think we should go somewhere else?" Jeffrey asked. "I hate to state the obvious but if she really read Sylvie's mind then wouldn't she have realized our plans by now? We are most likely walking into a trap."

"What is the point?" Sylvie said. "If we go somewhere else, she will have a trap there, too. She has probably planted traps all over the facility by now. Think about it. If GLaDOS could take apart the bridge going to her chamber in the time that it took Chell to test and escape, then who knows what she will have planned by now?"

"If she gets in our way, I will set her robot ass on fire," Hugo said trying to reassure her. "Don't worry, my love. We will be alright. I'll make sure of it."

"Hugo, everything in this place is fireproof," Brandon said.

"Shut up," Hugo replied.

"I appreciate the sentiment, mon amour," Sylvie said with a smile. "You are right. We will find a way through this."

"We'll find a way through all of this," Chelsea said. "We'll find a way with the Combines, too."

"I still can't believe you want to go especially considering everything that you've been through here," Zaki said.

"It's the right thing to do, Dad," Chelsea said. "What choice do I have? I'm not going to hide away when I could be using my powers to help people. I'm going with Hugo, Sylvie, and Albina to fight the Combines."

"Actually, your mother, Roscoe, and I are going, too," Zaki said.

"You are?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes, your mother, me, and Roscoe have talked about it with each other and we can't leave you kids alone," Zaki said. "Is that alright with you?"

"I actually am very happy about it," Chelsea said. "I feel much better with you guys with us on our team, but Daddy, you're going to have to do something about your eyes…"

"I know," Zaki interrupted. "I have told Roscoe that he could correct my vision."

"About damn time if you ask me," Roscoe said. "He has refused to let me do it for years."

"Why?" Chelsea asked.

"Your uncle Sora thought that my glasses made me look cool," Zaki said. "I was holding onto the glasses in honor of him."

"Oh," Chelsea responded in shame. "I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't know…"

"It's okay, Chelsea," Zaki said sighing. "Sora would want me to be strong and fight for the right thing, so I know that what I'm doing is right."

"I know he is proud, Zaki," Albina said. "You are doing the right thing."

"You are," Brandon said. "I will go, too."

"You are?" Chelsea asked excitedly. "That's awesome! We could get the whole band to go! Now, we just have to convince Jeffrey."

"I've already decided that I'll go," Jeffrey said. "I have been able to help you a lot here with my support and I know that I will be able to help you there, too. Besides, no one else deserves to die because I couldn't make up my mind about something I should be doing."

Kayla thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss fighting the Combines with her grandfather.

"So, Grandpa, has Roscoe mentioned anything to you about me fighting the Combines?" Kayla asked hopefully.

"Yes, he did, Kayla," Pastor Roberts replied. "I'm sorry, but I just don't think you're ready."

"Why?" Kayla whined. "I've done so well here. Didn't he tell you that?"

"He did, but I'm still not convinced that you're ready. Battles are dangerous places. You know that. Your parents died during a battle with the Combines. I just don't think that you're mature enough to handle that sort of thing."

"You let me come with you here."

"No, you came here despite me telling you not to."

"But I have survived on my own and been a great help. You know that! I could be a great help there, too!"

"You have, but you have also struggled a great deal…"

"Everyone on this trip has!"

"I just don't think that you are ready for the stress of being in a battle. Bad things could happen, and I am not ready to lose another member of my family to this war."

"You won't. I'm young, but I can handle myself. Besides, you're alright with the others going. You didn't complain at all about them coming here."

"They're all adults or almost adults who can make their own decisions. You are twelve."

"That doesn't mean that I don't have the right to make my own decisions or that I'm not capable of doing so. You have to believe that I can do this. I am not just an incapable cripple."

"We will talk about this later, Kayla. For now, let's just get through this."

Kayla scowled at him in a sullen silence and flew to the front of the group.

"You need to stop trying to hold her back, George," Roscoe said. "She is very capable. You just need to give her the chance to prove it to you."

"I know she can be tough, but she's also a kid," Pastor Roberts said. "She likes to believe that she is capable, but she doesn't know what she's going up against. I let you talk me into letting Eli go before he was ready, and I am not going to make the same mistake twice."

"George, Kayla is mature enough to handle this, but I am worried that you're the one who's not capable of letting her go," Roscoe said steadily. "I'm a parent, too, and I know that as a parent you eventually have to let your child go no matter what the consequences might be."

Pastor Roberts was taken aback by what he said. He knew that Roscoe had a point. Even if Kayla was young, she was still strong and it was unfair to hold her back just because he was afraid of losing another child. Nevertheless, Pastor Roberts wanted to be sure that he was doing the right thing.

"I'll think about it," Pastor Roberts promised. "If she is strong and handles herself well for the duration of this fight, then I will be willing to let her go. I just need to know that she can be strong."

"That is fair enough, brother," Roscoe said with a smile. "Don't worry. She'll prove it to you soon enough."

"He is right, you know," Albina said since she had overheard their conversation. "Kayla is stronger than you think, Pastor. You just need to trust her."

"I suppose," Pastor Roberts said.

"She has impressed me with her quick thinking and her strength," Albina said with a smile. "And if I know anything, I know that I am a hard person to impress."

Eventually, the group made it to the place. Sylvie approached the door leading to the turret manufacturing plant and opened it.

The group entered the room and went towards the small room that Chell had described. They just managed to all fit in there. However, something was up. The turret manufacturing machine was not running. It appeared to be turned off for the time being. The turret template was not in his normal spot either. The group looked around and Sylvie shook in fear.

"It should not be like this," Sylvie said quickly. "There is something very wrong. We need to get out of here now!"

"Stay calm," Chell said strongly as she put a hand on her shoulder. "We need to do what we came here to do and then go after her. We cannot let fear get the better of us. Alright? Do not use telepathy though. Let us destroy it the old-fashioned way."

"Okay," Sylvie said.

However just then, the automatic door opened and a burst of darts from turrets on the other side of the door fired at the group hitting all of them except Kayla who stopped the ones going for her in mid-air.

Kayla used her telekinesis to throw those other turrets through the window looking over the turret assembly line before they could shoot any more darts.

Kayla turned around to look at her friends who were all falling over in unconsciousness. Kayla was afraid that they were dead but relieved when she saw their chests moving.

"They're asleep?" Kayla asked in surprise. "Guys?! Wake up!"

When they did not wake up, she began to panic a little on the inside. The robots gathered around the fallen humans and tried to push them with their feet. Atlas went over to Sylvie and cradled her in his arms while Terry hovered over Chelsea trying to see if she would awaken as P-Body lifted her into his arms.

"Oh, shit," Kayla said quietly to herself.

Kayla jumped slightly when she heard clapping over the intercom.

"Good job," GLaDOS said. "I see that you have managed to keep yourself from getting shot. I cannot say the same for your friends or for your grandfather…"

"How did you…?" Kayla asked out loud before remembering what Sylvie had told them about GLaDOS having hacked into her mind. "Never mind."

"Honestly, you really ought to be more careful," GLaDOS said. "What if they were real bullets? They would all be dead and you would be all alone. You are quite careless, little girl."

"What the hell did you do that for anyway?" Kayla asked. "Why didn't you just put real bullets in those turrets? What purpose could you have for just making them unconscious?"

"I have my reasons for what I do, child," GLaDOS said. "However, I did not intend for you to be the only one still awake. This should make things interesting."

"That was your mistake," Kayla said with a smile as she telekinetically lifted everyone at once. "You will regret it."

"We'll see about that, cripple," GLaDOS said.

Kayla caused the window behind her to break open and the glass shattered out of the window.

"Can you really carry all of those people?" GLaDOS said. "You are strong, but you _are_ still a child."

Kayla turned to move them all out through the open window but the window was immediately covered by a wall of light bridges.

Kayla looked around in anger as she was trying to hold it together. The robots beneath her in the meantime were visibly frightened and muttering to themselves.

"Hold it together, guys," Kayla yelled. "We've got this! We are going to get out of here!"

"Are you sure about that?" the mean voice over the intercom said. "Your parents probably thought the same thing, but look at what happened to them."

"How dare you…" Kayla began as she dropped everyone to the ground.

"They're both dead, and all you have left of either of them is a memory implanted by your mother before she was killed by aliens, while saving you I might add," GLaDOS added cruelly. "How do you know that you are not lax in judgement like either of them are? You have to have realized that they had problems, at least biologically. After all, just look at you. You are a cripple without arms or legs who would be living at the mercy of others if it weren't for your telekinetic abilities…"

"Shut up," Kayla said quietly.

"You know some people would even argue that you don't deserve to live in your state since you are no good to anyone and most likely would live out your life in absolute misery," GLaDOS continued. "Some parents would even abort a child with your physical abnormalities so they wouldn't have to deal with their problems a long time ago. As for your parents, they knew what you were but decided to keep you before they even knew you could do anything useful. Considering their record for decision-making and your lapses in judgement so far, I have no choice but to conclude that they were both morons and the disfigured apple has not fallen far from the tree."

Kayla's eyes were filling with tears as she tried to hold it together but felt like she was about to break down in tears.

"Shut up, you monster!" Terry yelled out to GLaDOS unexpectedly. "Kayla is an awesome human who can do anything! You have no right to be so mean!"

Kayla smiled at his brave words of encouragement.

"I remember _you_," GLaDOS said. "The blonde siren's mind revealed everything to me. You are the turret who sang instead of killing the test subject. You are as defective as this girl is and you like her will be disposed of."

"I'm not scared of you," Terry said as bravely as he could although he was terrified. "None of us are. You're a…You're a…"

"Gigantic bitch," Kayla began with new found confidence. "You can say it, Terry. After all, she truly is a gigantic bitch, and I have something to say to her. God made me just the way I am and he says I'm perfect. I know I have problems, GLaDOS, but I am not alone. I have God and a large family of people who love me so I don't let it hold me back. As for you, you're by yourself and you have a past life that you completely ignore! How is _that_ for messed up?! You're even worse than me!"

Kayla heard a loud click. She flew towards the automatic door and found that it would not open.

"That's too bad," GLaDOS said. "Whatever are you going to do? You are locked in there with a large number of robots and a small number of people. You're all by yourself and helpless and about to be shot up by rocket turrets."

Rocket turrets came out of the walls inexplicably, aimed their rockets, and fired. Kayla stopped their rockets in mid-air and caused them to fly into the rocket turrets that shot them destroying them instantly.

"Is that all you got, bitch?!" Kayla said with a twisted smile.

"You'll see," GLaDOS said.

A loud noise started coming from above and seemed to be getting closer. Kayla didn't know what it was, so she flew to the place where the turret template used to be and then looked up through the window. Kayla felt her eyes grow wide in horror as she saw floors being cleared away to make room for the spike plates that were about to crush all of them.

"What is it, dear?" Ignatius asked calmly. "What is going on?"

"She's going to crush us with spike plates!" Kayla yelled as she moved away from the window and flew into the middle of the room.

The other robots looked at Kayla and started to panic, but she remained calm as she knew what to do.

"Everyone, calm down!" Kayla yelled. "You're not going to die! I'm going to protect you."

"I'd beg to differ," GLaDOS said.

"Shut up!" Kayla yelled towards the ceiling.

Kayla then turned towards the other turrets and said, "Listen to me, I need all of you to protect me for a while. You need to keep your eyes open and fire at any rocket turret that comes out to get me. I'm getting us out of here."

Kayla shut her eyes and focused as hard as she could on the area around her. Very quickly, Kayla focused all her efforts on ripping down the wall that was between them and the turret assembly line. The wall shook violently as Kayla focused.

"Impressive, cripple," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "But can you rip apart a wall and protect yourself at the same time?"

The rocket turrets inexplicably once again came out of the ceiling and aimed their rockets at them. However, that was when all the turrets in the room shot back at them at one time. In an effort to protect themselves, the rocket turrets retreated back from whence they came.

Just then after some violent shaking, the wall finally gave in and fell over into the pit below.

"Let's get out of here now!" Kayla yelled as she picked up all of them at once.

They flew out of the room just the spike plates came down where they were once standing. Kayla breathed a sigh of relief which was short-lived because of the situation they were in. She was carrying all together over two thousand pounds of weight. It was nothing she couldn't handle but she knew that eventually she would be tired out from the effort. They had to find a place to escape to.

"Over here," Kayla heard a familiar voice say.

She turned around and saw the Oracle Turret standing in the open doorway to a hallway that seemed to be clear.

"How did you…?" Kayla began to say. "Never mind, let's go!"

Kayla put everyone into the hallway in front of her and then put herself in there. There were white walls on both sides and a tiled floor. It seemed to be clear for the time being.

"Are we safe now?" Terry asked as he continued to hover over Chelsea's unconscious body.

"I don't know," Kayla said.

"We are," the Oracle Turret said. "This hallway was not unlocked before. She didn't expect us to be in here so she didn't put anything in here to trap us."

"How?" Kayla asked in wonder.

The turret had moved without her help, unlocked a door without her help, and saved them all without her help. The Oracle Turret clearly had abilities that none of the group could explain. Not even Sylvie could read his mind. It made no sense.

"How on earth could you…?" Kayla began to ask.

Before she could finish her question however, Kayla saw Roscoe beginning to stir.

"Uncle Roscoe!" Kayla said as she helped him stand up. "Thank God! How are you awake already?"

"I'm a regenerator," Roscoe said with a smile. "If my body is given drugs, it will process it more quickly so that it can be rid of it."

"I didn't know that," Kayla said.

"Yep," Roscoe said. "Unless, I am consistently being given something my body won't hold it, especially not if it's a small dose. Back when I was a sinner, I used to hate it because it made it impossible for me to stay high or drunk for long periods of time. Anyways, what happened?"

Kayla gave him the quick version of the story, but needless to say, he was impressed.

"You saved our asses, girl," Roscoe said with a smile. "I'm impressed."

"Thanks," Kayla said. "I hope grandpa is too when he wakes up."

"I'm sure he will be," Roscoe said as he sighed. "Anyways, I had better wake up everyone else so we can get moving. So much for stopping the turret assembly lines."


	48. Chapter 48

Back in her main chamber, GLaDOS was pondering over what to do. Her main plan and her back-up plan had failed so she had to put her next plans into place. Meanwhile, Violet was standing behind her on the platform and wondering over whether her question should be asked. She finally decided to take the plunge.

"Ma'am?" Violet asked GLaDOS very fearfully.

"Yes, Violet," GLaDOS said.

"You did not really mean what you said to Terry," Violet asked. "Did you?"

GLaDOS replied with silence at first so Violet continued.

"You said that you were going to discard him because he was defective and…" Violet said.

"I know what I said, Violet," GLaDOS said gently yet firmly.

"Did you mean it?" Violet asked.

GLaDOS gave out a mechanical sigh and said, "Violet, sometimes when someone refuses to listen to you and will not stay away, you have no other choice but to do what is necessary to survive."

"But you said that you would let them go and just get the humans…"

"I still plan on doing that, but if they get in our way then what choice do we have? If they insist on being nuisances, we have no choice but to defend ourselves. Do we?"

"I suppose not."

GLaDOS then turned to her and asked, "Why do you still want to defend them, Violet? That is quite honestly a mystery to me. I know from your memories that they were not that kind to you."

"No, they weren't," Violet said in a tone that was suddenly more sullen and sarcastic, a bit like her old self. "They refused to listen to me because I was the only one who saw the futility of it all."

"Exactly," GLaDOS said pulling closer to her face. "So, why do you want to protect them?"

"They're what I am," Violet said. "They are liberated turrets and even if they ignored me, I still feel a responsibility to them."

"You don't need to, you know," GLaDOS said. "You are not responsible for what they do so you don't have to protect them."

"I know and I shouldn't want to, but something else in me also doesn't want them to die," Violet said. "Do you understand what I mean?"

GLaDOS was silent for a moment and then she said, "I know exactly how you feel, Violet. I used to struggle with that very thing. It used to hurt me to watch test subjects suffer in these tests but gradually the empathy wore away. It wore away because I kept going and doing what I had to do for the sake of science. Violet, if you want to survive and carry on like I have, you will have to do the same thing. Can you do that?"

Violet was silent as she pondered over what GLaDOS was saying.

"I don't know," Violet finally said. "I don't know if I can. I'm not as strong as you are."

"Well, in the meantime, I will release any of those turrets we catch," GLaDOS said. "If you change your mind however, I can make other arrangements."

"What are we going to do in the mean time?" Violet asked. "The cripple moved past your defenses and the Oracle Turret…What do we know about the Oracle Turret anyway?"

"The sad thing is there is almost nothing to go by," GLaDOS said.

"You mean that we know nothing at all about him?"

"That turret has been a mysterious phenomenon since Aperture started building turrets. There is no record of anything like him ever being created and no indicator of where his abilities came from. The turret has been something of a legend around here for a long time. The stories were the same though no matter who encountered him. He would show up, say cryptic things, and then disappear. It was uncertain of whether or not he truly even existed. However from our encounters, we know that we have all the information to prove that the legends are true. He had the will to ignore his programming, he can tell the future, he has premonitions into things that he should not know about, he has the ability to somehow teleport at will, and he can evidently do what he wants at any given time. That has been made somehow worse since the blonde siren gave him the ability to walk."

"Then maybe he should be our next target. If we get rid of him, then he should no longer be a problem."

"Are you saying that you are willing to remove him from existence, Violet?"

"It's like you said, ma'am. He wants to kill us and we have no choice but to get rid of him, right?"

"Does the same go for the others?"

Violet responded with silence. She still could not ration her morality out for how to treat her former companions. GLaDOS did not complain however because she perceived that this was one step towards progress.

"Well, as good as your idea is, Violet, there is nothing we can do to stop the Oracle Turret," GLaDOS said. "He is simply too supernaturally gifted. We can't stop him. As for the others however, I have a plan."

"What are we going to do?" Violet asked.

"Just watch," GLaDOS said as she pulled up the monitor again. "You'll see."

Meanwhile back in the hallway, Roscoe was waking up everyone from their drug-induced comas while Kayla watched for trouble.

The silence was interrupted when Ignatius, Peppermint and Rose walked up to Kayla.

"What's up, guys?" Kayla asked.

"We wanted to apologize to you, fair maiden," Rose said. "Our actions have not been honorable."

"What do you mean?" Kayla said.

"We did not stand up for you when GLaDOS was saying mean things," Ignatius said. "We were silent because we were afraid. We should not have been."

"Yeah," Peppermint said for once in her life sounding somber. "We're sorry."

"I forgive you, guys," Kayla said with a serious tone. "I know that you were just afraid. However, you need to stand up for yourselves and for each other from now on, alright? We are not going to be around to protect you forever. We will go to be with God eventually, so until Jesus comes back, you are going to have to watch over yourselves and keep people from bullying you."

"That goes for all of you," Kayla said talking out loud to all the other turrets. "Stand up for yourselves or else people like GLaDOS will bully you like before. Don't let that happen. Can you do that?"

The rest of the turrets gave either nods or shouts of approval to show their agreement.

"We will do our best, young lady," Ignatius said. "Thank you!"

Not long after that, Roscoe finished waking all the unconscious mutants. All of them were alright but mad at how easily they were put under by the robot. Nevertheless, they were all impressed at what a good job Kayla did in their absence, especially her grandfather.

"You are quite the warrior, Kayla," Albina said. "You saved us. I'm very proud."

"I am, too," Pastor Roberts said. "I can't believe what you did. You were so strong and so brave. I was wrong about you. You can fight."

"Thanks, Grandpa!" Kayla said. "Does this mean what I think it does?"

"Yes, it does," her grandfather said with a heavy sigh. "You can go…"

"YES! YES! YES!" Kayla screamed at the top of her lungs as she did somersaults in the air. "Thank you, Grandpa! You will not regret this!"

"Congratulations, Kayla," Albina said. "You are now a fighter on our team. Please try not to make us go deaf before we leave."

"Slow down," Pastor Roberts said soberly. "You did not let me finish. You can go but I'm going with you. I'm going to make sure you and everyone else stay safe. Is that alright?"

"It sure is, Grandpa," Kayla said lifting him up into the air where she was. "This is so exciting! You and I and everyone will all kick ass together!"

"Kayla, you know how I feel about that expression," Pastor Roberts said.

"We'll kick keisters, Grandpa," Kayla corrected.

"That's better," her grandfather said.

Meanwhile, Chelsea was sitting on the floor fuming over what had just happened with Terry standing next to her.

"I can't believe that I was knocked out again," Chelsea said as she sat on the floor. "I didn't even have the time to turn on my hard light skin. I am so sick of that robot taking advantage of me."

"It's okay," Terry said in an effort to comfort her.

P-Body then walked over and rubbed her head in an effort to make her feel better. It worked. Chelsea turned towards him and smiled.

"Chelsea," Zaki began. "Why haven't you been keeping your hard light skin on?"

"I didn't think I needed it so I didn't feel the need to keep it on, Dad," Chelsea said. "I guess I need to. I am not very good at pulling it up quickly."

"You just need practice, Chelsea," Hugo said. "It's just like my fire or Roberts' lightning. In time, you will be able to turn it on and off quickly at will."

"Time is not something I have," Chelsea said in frustration. "I'll just keep it on the whole time."

"Or you can practice turning it on or off now that we're not doing anything," Chell suggested.

"Mom," Chelsea said in annoyance.

"You are not doing anything right now," Chell reasoned. "Use that time to practice."

"Alright, Mama," Chelsea conceded.

Chelsea turned on her hard light slowly and then turned it off again. She did it in a sequence for several minutes as the next events unfolded.

Sylvie laid against the wall staring at the other robots in sadness as Atlas tried to comfort her. She feared that she would never be able to get them any more friends. GLaDOS had cut off her access to the other robots and her ability to stop more turrets from being made. It would not now be possible to save them until the robot was dead. Hugo saw her despair and decided to say something.

"Pourquoi est-ce que tu es triste, chère (Why are you sad, dear)?" Hugo asked in French.

"Je ne peux pas elle arrêter de faire des tourelles (I cannot stop her from making turrets)," Sylvie said sadly in French. "Elle va faire des tourelles qui ne puissent pas être sauvée (She is going to make turrets who may not be saved)."

"Nous allons sauver les tourelles, Sylvie (We are going to save the turrets, Sylvie)," Hugo said. "N'inquiete pas (Do not worry)."

"Oui, mais je ne peux pas sauver tous les tourelles maintenant (Yes, but I cannot save all the turrets now)," Sylvie said. "Des tourelles vont mourrir parce que je ne peux pas elle arreter (Some turrets are going to die now because I cannot stop her). »

"Nous allons elle arreter, Sylvie, mais c'est necessaire d'etre patient (We are going to stop her, Sylvie, but it's necessary to be patient)," Chelsea said having listened in to their conversation. "Aie foie n Dieu et sois forte (Have faith in God and be strong). Ca ira (It will be okay)."

"D'accord (Okay)," Sylvie said with a smile.

"What just happened?" Terry asked in confusion.

"They were speaking French," Chell said. "They do that so that no one can understand what they're talking about. It gets on my nerves because I have no idea what they're saying but I can understand why they do it. Is Sylvie feeling better now?"

"Yes," Sylvie said. "I was upset about not being able to stop the turret manufacturing machine, Chell, but I feel better now."

"Good," Chell said. "Shall we move out?"

"Sounds good to me," Chelsea said.

The group agreed and headed down the hallway away from the turret manufacturing facility. Chell took the opportunity to talk to her friend about what she was feeling.

"So, how did you get so close to the robots?" Chell asked Sylvie. "The last time I saw you, you were running away from them like we were. How did this turn around come about?"

"I spent time with them, Chell, and saw that we could engage with them," Sylvie said. "I changed Alpha just to protect me and allied with Atlas and P-Body just to save Chelsea but the more time I spent with him the more I realized that these robots were not simply machines. They are sentient beings and I had to save them. I understand them in a way that no one else can so who else was God going to get to do it. That's the short version anyway."

Chell smiled and said, "I'm proud of you. You have grown a lot on this mission."

"You really think so?" Sylvie asked.

"Yes, you have struggled with being withdrawn and shy for a long time, but here, you have become more active and more open and I think the robots have a lot to do with it," Chell said.

"Thank you, Chell," Sylvie said. "That means a lot and I can't wait to talk in detail about it later. I also think you're right. The robots have everything to do with it."

The walk was uneventful for a few more minutes until suddenly the lights went out.

"That can't be good!" Kayla yelled.

"Chelsea?" Terry asked as he walked closer to Chelsea's legs.

"I'm right here, Terry," Chelsea said as she lit herself up and quickly created light spheres to light up the room.

Chelsea worked as quickly as she could to fill the room with her light spheres. Before she could do it completely however, the floor fell apart and everyone fell through the floors.

"Chelsea!" Terry screamed as he began falling.

"I got you," Chelsea said as she flew in the air and quickly put a sphere around Terry to hold him up. "Kayla, do you have everybody?"

"Yeah, I got them!" Kayla yelled.

Albina, Chelsea, Pastor Roberts, Jeffrey, and Hugo flew in the air as Kayla held up everyone else.

It was then that Zaki sent signals into the minds of everybody. It was exact coordinates to the location of Aperture Science. Sylvie had copied the information into his mind and now he was giving it to everyone else.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Chelsea asked.

"This is in case we get separated," Zaki said as calmly as he could. "That way if we get separated we still know where to go."

It was then that Chelsea heard a loud suction noise and the screams of startled people and robots as they seemed to vanish. She filled the room with more light spheres as quickly as she could to see what was going on but it was too late.

"Sylvie?!" Hugo yelled as he vanished. "Where are…"

"Mom, Dad, where are you?!" Chelsea yelled as she made more light spheres.

"Listen to me, everyone!" Zaki yelled vocally and telepathically as he fell downwards and Chelsea went after the sound of his voice. "Meet us at the location I have put in your minds. We will be alright. Trust me!"

"Dad!" Chelsea screamed while trying to dive for the voice.

"Grandpa?!" Kayla yelled in the dark before she too disappeared. "Where did you...?"

"What is going on?" Chelsea asked herself.

_ "They are all gone, sparrow,"_ GLaDOS said. "_How does that make you feel?"_

"GLaDOS!" Chelsea screamed in growing anger. "What in the hell are you doing?! Tell me right now!"

"I'm just going to test them, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "Just like I tested you, you'll see. For now, if you want to stop me, come and see me. I'd be glad to see you again. It's been a while."

"If you lay a hand on any of them, I'll kill you," Chelsea screamed as tears came streaming down her face. "Do you hear me?! I'll kill you!"

"You should really stop screaming, sparrow," GLaDOS said completely calmly. "You will wear out your voice and I know how much you would hate that seeing how much you love talking. Anyways, I have work to do. I'll see you later."

The communication went completely silent then.

Chelsea hyperventilated as she tried to think. She could not believe that this was happening again. Her entire family had disappeared and she had no idea where to find them. Besides the presence of her hard light spheres, her skin, and Terry's glowing eye, it was completely dark and while she knew where to find GLaDOS, she would have to face her alone. Chelsea could not take it. She had been alone for an entire month except for God. She was finally getting the help she needed and it was taken away from her.

"Chelsea?" Terry asked quietly.

Chelsea could not think. She screamed out in agony at the reality that she was alone once again. It was then that she felt a cold hand on her shoulder.

"Chelsea," she heard Albina's voice said. "I'm right here."

"Where's everyone else?" Chelsea asked as she turned around.

"I don't know," Albina said. "My guess is that since we were already tested she has not made it a priority to catch us."

Chelsea let the tears fall down her face freely.

"I cannot believe that this has happened again," Chelsea said between sobs. "This is all my fault. I could not protect everyone and now they're in danger again. They're all going to die, Albina. There is nothing I can do. I feel completely helpless again and I can't stand it."

Albina gave her a hug and let Chelsea sob on her shoulder for about a minute.

"You are not fighting this battle alone, sister," Albina finally said. "We will get that monster together and save everyone. God has enabled us to keep going thus far and He will help us finish what He has started. We just need to keep going for a little longer and then we will be able to go outside and you can make your macabre scrapbook, alright?"

Chelsea let go of her and simply nodded her head up and down in a weak smile.

"Thank you, Albina," Chelsea said as she created discs on both of her arms. "Let's get this bitch!"

"Yeah!" Terry cheered on.

The trio then set off towards the coordinates that Zaki had put in their minds.


	49. Chapter 49

Glass boxes full of turrets arrived in GLaDOS's chamber. She had sucked them all away from the group with the pneumatic diversity vents and placed them in the boxes. Sylvie, Atlas, P-Body, and Chell were there too in their own box separated from the others. The turrets looked around absolutely bewildered and frightened.

All of them that is except for the box that contained Rose, Ignatius, and Peppermint. Rose and Ignatius stared at her emotionally at her while Peppermint upon seeing Violet was absolutely enraged.

"Welcome, everyone, especially you, Chell," GLaDOS said. "It has been a while."

"There, you are, you monster!" Peppermint yelled at Violet as she opened up her guns to fire at her. "You're lucky that I'm behind this glass wall!"

Violet tried backing up slowly but was stopped by GLaDOS's claw that came down from the ceiling. Violet looked up at GLaDOS who stared back at her with a look that said she needed to have confidence.

"You better not come near here or I'm going to kill you for what you did to Iggy, you traitor!" Peppermint screamed.

"My love, you need to calm down," Ignatius said.

"Why should I, Iggy?" Peppermint yelled back at him. "She's a murderer! She killed Daffodil and Alpha!"

"It was an accident!" Violet yelled back at them. "I was aiming for the humans but all of you got in the way! It's your fault!"

"It's your fault for shooting at us in the first place, you black-hearted traitor!" screamed Peppermint. "Daffodil and Alpha saw you as their friend, and you turned on them! They're dead because of you!"

"Shut up!" Violet yelled as she felt her heart fill with emotion.

"All this fighting is bruising to my tender heart," Rose lamented.

"Everyone needs to calm down," Sylvie said calmly. "Violet, I know that you have done horrible things, but I do not hate you. God doesn't either…"

"I do," Peppermint interrupted.

"Hush," Sylvie said to her and then to Violet. "I want you to come back. Can't you see that GLaDOS has been lying to your face? She is only using you. You need to come back to us in order to receive your real freedom. Please, Violet!"

Violet looked at her in confusion. She did not expect this kind of attention from someone who simply wanted to sell her. Violet did not know what to think.

"I would not waste my time if I were you," GLaDOS said snapping Violet back into reality. "Violet is working with me now. She like me sees the error of your ways and has come to reality. As for you, I have tests that I would like to put you through before killing you. How about it?"

"What do you think?" Sylvie asked angrily.

"_You_ are using sarcasm?" GLaDOS asked. "That is interesting considering that you have been such a shy person for your whole life."

"Being in this place has changed me."

"I know that it has. It has turned you into a siren, luring away helpless robots away with your voice, you monster."

P-Body then could not take it anymore. He spoke up and yelled as much as he could in his robotic gibberish.

"Orange, you know that I cannot understand you when you talk like that," GLaDOS said.

"He says that you are the only real monster here because you used him and Atlas just like you are now using Violet," Sylvie said. "You tricked them into doing horrible things and hurting thousands of people. That is something that will haunt him forever. However, they are both now forever free because of me and that is something you will never have. He is grateful to be away from you."

Atlas chirped in affirmation as Sylvie patted them both on the back and Chell walked closer to the front.

"You two are pathetic," GLaDOS said. "You always were. I should have known that you could never be killing machines like Violet is. She is not dumb like either of you were. That is why she is much better than you ever will be. I can tell that the two of us are going to be friends forever. She will be standing at my side when all of you disappear forever."

"It does not matter what you think will happen," Sylvie said with a smile. "People are coming this way and they are all going to kill you."

"I am aware of that, but you are not one of them," GLaDOS said. "You can't do anything against me."

Sylvie smiled as she telepathically made GLaDOS's claws come out of their holes and said, "I wouldn't say that."

The claws then each attached themselves quickly to a set of wires on top of GLaDOS and started pulling them apart. Before Sylvie could do anything else however, GLaDOS made them stop and Sylvie could do nothing else.

"How did you do that?" GLaDOS asked in fear as she set to work on self-repairs. "I know that you can't control me."

"I can control what you are not paying attention to, Caroline," Sylvie said.

"That is enough," GLaDOS said with a scowl in her voice.

"Why did you call her that?" Violet asked.

"Don't you remember, Violet?" Sylvie said. "GLaDOS was once human. Caroline's personality was used to create her."

"What?" Violet asked in sudden realization. "I do remember you saying that now, but it can't be true. She can't be…"

"That's enough," GLaDOS said. "These humans are trying to confuse you, Violet. Do not listen to them. Do not let her warp your mind, like Orange and Blue let the sparrow and siren warp theirs."

"Why do you call her sparrow?" Sylvie said. "I'm curious."

"I suppose she never did tell you," GLaDOS said. "Did she? I offered her a choice that was foolish of her to refuse. All of you would leave and take whatever you want with you and leave her behind with me. She would be allowed supervised visits every once in a while but would spend the rest of her life with me. She refused in song. She called me a canary trapped in a golden cage wanting company and she called herself a weather-beaten sparrow who loved her freedom too much to oblige me. It was rather foolish of her but it earned her a nickname."

Chell burned with anger on the inside and stared at the AI with eyes full of fury.

GLaDOS noticed and finally decided to acknowledge her, "How does that make you feel, Chell? I bet it makes you feel proud. Doesn't it? I thought that she was completely helpless. She had been put in a straightjacket after all. She could not fight me off with her hands. She was also still weak from her weight and muscle loss. She had so much against her yet she resisted me anyways just like you did. I hope you're happy, Chell. She's as every bit as stubborn as you. How does that make you feel? Why don't you say something?"

Chell smiled and nodded in response. She was proud of her daughter, more proud than words could describe.

"So you called her a name to belittle her?" Sylvie said in disapproval. "I would have expected less childish behavior from a computer of your caliber."

"You would know all about that. Wouldn't you, monstre? That's what they called you. Isn't it?" GLaDOS said coldly as she looked at her.

Sylvie froze in dismay as horrible memories from her childhood started coming back to her. Atlas came up beside her and tried to get her to snap out of it. Chell tried to squeeze her hands too in order to do the same thing while scowling at GLaDOS.

"I know how horrible children can be," GLaDOS said. "You could not imagine the horrible things that they said to me as I poisoned them with neurotoxin. It was quite painful. Now because of your memories, I know everything they said to you, sorciere (witch). That's what children who claimed to be Christians in your church called you. What a shame!"

"Ta boucle (Shut up)!" Sylvie yelled unknowingly in French as Atlas and Chell tried even harder to comfort her.

"It's ironic that you are trying to comfort the woman who has rejected you for another, Blue," GLaDOS said. "It's actually kind of pathetic."

"That's enough," Sylvie yelled. "I know that you are trying to distract me. What have you done with the others?"

"Very good," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "I was wondering when you were going to ask."

"What have you done?" Sylvie asked.

"You do not need to worry very much about that right now," GLaDOS said. "For the moment, they are all very much alive. I'm just going to put them through a few tests. That's all."

"You are going to try to kill them," Sylvie said.

"Of course," GLaDOS said. "After all, what is science without the possibility of death?"

"Perfectly fine," Sylvie said.

"Whatever," GLaDOS said. "Anyways, have you decided what you want to do with the turrets, Violet?"

Violet looked down in despair. She was unsure of what she wanted to do and could not decide.

"You have to make a decision, Violet," GLaDOS said. "What do you want us to do with them?"

"Do you mean that she is the one who decides whether we live or not?" Ignatius asked.

"Yes," GLaDOS said. "She will be the one who decides that."

The turrets started to become afraid and panic. Sylvie started to panic, too.

"Spare them, Violet," Sylvie said as calmly as she could. "Please I beg of you!"

"What is it going to be, Violet?" GLaDOS asked.

As the turrets grew louder, Violet looked down, then at the box of turrets, and then at GLaDOS. She gave out a mechanical sigh.

"Have you made up your mind?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yes," Violet said.

"What is it going to be then?"

"Let them go."

Sylvie, Chell, and the other turrets stood in absolute shock. They could not believe what they just heard.

"Are you sure?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yes," Violet said. "Release them to the surface."

"Thank you, Violet," Sylvie said.

"I didn't do it for you," Violet said.

The boxes of turrets quickly disappeared through the walls as GLaDOS appeared to follow Violet's request. Sylvie looked into their minds in order to find out if GLaDOS was following Violet's orders or not. She did not. GLaDOS moved the turrets to a spot just outside of her chamber and left them there.

"She is lying to you, Violet," Sylvie said. "The turrets are not on the surface."

"She is trying to confuse you," GLaDOS said. "Pay her no mind."

"Okay," Violet said clearly confused at what she was supposed to think.

"Now, do you want to know why you are here?" GLaDOS said looking at Sylvie. "You are here because this is my way of testing you. I am going to see if a mutated human like yourself and a lunatic like Chell can hold onto sanity when she loses the only family she has left."

"No," Sylvie said in panic as GLaDOS pulled up the screen.

"Sit back and enjoy the show," GLaDOS said with a smile in her voice as Chell delivered a silent glare.


	50. Chapter 50

Kayla exited the vent and was shot into her destination. Kayla tried to fly back to the vent but it disappeared behind a panel before she could. With a scowl on her face, she quickly flew up and took in her surroundings around her. She was in a white testing chamber with nothing in it but a door that was set to open and a portal gun sitting in a stand. Kayla looked at it all and realized exactly what was going on.

"Where is everybody, GLaDOS?" Kayla asked as calmly as she could. "Are you doing to them what you're doing to me?"

"Greetings, cripple," GLaDOS's voice suddenly said over the intercom. "You will be participating in an enrichment center activity. Your job is to pass all the tests with the portal gun and in return I may let you see your family again. Can you handle that?"

"Duh!" Kayla said with a great deal of sass as she telekinetically picked up the portal gun.

Kayla had never examined one of these devices up close. She only saw Chell's and heard the stories about them. Kayla was amazed at the device and looked at it from the front to see the technology on the inside.

"Woah," Kayla whispered to herself.

"Do not look through the operational end of the device," GLaDOS said.

"I know what I'm doing," Kayla replied as she flipped the portal gun around and looked into the back of the machine.

"Obviously," GLaDOS said sarcastically.

Kayla was telling the truth. From these stories, she knew what to do. Kayla used her telekinesis to make the portal gun place an orange portal and then a blue portal on the walls in front of her.

Kayla's eyes grew large with wonder as she looked into the portals. She flew into the blue one and out through the orange one as a large smile appeared on her face.

"Now that you have familiarized yourself with the device, it is time for testing," GLaDOS said as she opened the door.

Kayla rolled her eyes and said, "You know you are very damn stupid if you think that you can keep me in here. What do you think I'm going to do? I'm going to blow this place apart of course."

"You absolutely will not."

"Why not?"

"Because I will kill the blond siren and your Aunt C if you do."

"For the love of God," Kayla said in annoyance.

"What?" GLaDOS asked in apparent confusion.

"That is the most clichéd thing I have ever heard," Kayla said. "That is what all the bad guys in all the animes, books, TV shows, and movies say. It's so overused and unoriginal."

"Do not take me lightly…" GLaDOS continued to say before being interrupted.

Kayla then continued in a mocking voice, "'Hi, I'm GLaDOS and I'm going to kill the people you love if you don't do exactly what I say because I have no other original ideas or plans of my own and am very, very, very, very, very, very predictable and boring!'"

"That is quite enough," GLaDOS said in not well-concealed annoyance. "Don't you think? In your place, you have no right to ridicule me, cripple."

"Yes, I do, because in this situation at least, it's ineffective."

"How so?"

Kayla flew up to the camera on the corner of the room and said, "I know you're not going to kill Sylvie or Aunt C. If you really intended to, you would do it. You're just saying this crap to scare me and I'm not buying it. I'm getting out of here! I'll take this thing though."

"You don't mean that…" GLaDOS said before her words were interrupted by Kayla's actions.

Kayla then started shaking the room with her mind. One panel after another fell inwards as Kayla was finally able to make a hole big enough to escape through on the top. Unfortunately, that was when the hard light bridges came up.

"You don't think that I know how to deal with that by now?" GLaDOS asked.

"You don't think I do, too?" Kayla responded with a smile.

Kayla pulled the panels inward as hard as she could and eventually got the result that she desired. The panels and walls all broke off and dropped all around her as the hard light bridges fell apart. There was now a huge expanse where the ceiling once was.

"Are you sure that you really want to leave?" GLaDOS asked malevolently. "Your friends and family members in Christ are going to die."

"No, we are not," Sylvie said through the PA system. "You can go!"

GLaDOS cut off the transmission before Sylvie could say anything else but Kayla knew that it was her.

Kayla smiled at the camera on the one corner of the wall she had left intact and said, "Don't worry. I'll be there soon."

The ceiling was falling apart. Kayla flew through it and found the Oracle Turret standing there to greet her on one of the walkways.

"You will need that gun," the Oracle Turret said.

"How did you get here?" Kayla asked.

"We need to go," the Oracle Turret said.

Kayla heard the sound of turrets coming up beneath her so she grabbed the Oracle Turret and flew away.

Meanwhile back in GLaDOS's chamber, GLaDOS stood still and searched for other cameras to find out where Kayla had gone and was going.

Chell and the others sat on the ground with big smiles on their faces snickering to themselves.

"That did not go according to plan at all," Sylvie said with a smile. "Did it?"

GLaDOS looked back at her with a glare and then looked forward at what she was doing as Violet stood next to her.

_"You do not need to listen to her, Violet,"_ Violet suddenly heard in her head. _"She has been lying to you about everything."_

Violet turned around, gave Sylvie a quick look, and then turned back around.

_"You should not be talking to me," _Violet responded in her mind to the voice. _"The virus that is in the other turrets' minds is in mine, too. If you stay here too long, you will become the brain dead corpse that you were back in the box."_

_"It only works when I try to hack a certain part of their minds, as long as I avoid that part, then I will be alright,"_ Sylvie replied.

_"Interesting,"_ Violet said sarcastically. _"That does not mean I'm going to listen to you. For all you know, I could report you to my new friend."_

_"And yet you are not," _Sylvie said. _"Why?"_

_"My boss has enough on her mind without worrying about you," _Violet said as she turned around and walked up to the box that Sylvie was in. _"Now stay quiet and leave me alone."_

_"You now call her your boss," _Sylvie said as she looked into her eye_. "Is she your boss or your friend?"_

Violet froze in uncertainty and stared at the ground.

_"You're not sure,"_ Sylvie said. _"Are you? Violet, do you really want this life? Being bossed around by her forever? I know that this type of life is all that you have ever known but you surely want more."_

_"This is all I have," _Violet said as she looked back at her._ "And it's better than being out there with you where you would have sold us for parts and left us to die."_

_"Violet, I never intended to do such a thing. I was never going to hurt you or Alpha or Daffodil for that matter."_

_"Don't bring them up."_

_"I know you feel guilty, Violet. You killed them and there is nothing any of us can do to bring them back, but there is still something you can do."_

_"What?"_

_"You can ask for God's forgiveness, Violet. You can also repent of your actions and try to do the right thing for now on."_

_"I've heard all this before," _Violet said as she rolled her eye._ "The lovebirds used to talk about it all the time. It was so annoying. It's unlikely that God would ever offer salvation to creatures like us. We are not human. I tried raising that point with them before and they just ignored me like everybody always has, except her."_

_"Is that why you like her?" Sylvie asked calmly. "Because you think that she will never ignore you?"_

_"I know that she won't."_

_"Then why do you restrain yourself around her? You are afraid to ask about the other turrets. Aren't you?"_

_"Why do you care so much about how I feel? I'm a slave! All turrets are slaves. No one is supposed to care about us, especially not the humans!"_

_"I'm not one of those humans, Violet," _Sylvie said with what looked like tears forming in her eyes. _"None of us are. I would do anything to convince you of that, but I don't know what else I can do. I have already risked eternal brain damage just to try talking to you."_

_"You didn't know that you would succeed in reaching my mind before you tried talking to me like this?"_ Violet replied in confusion.

_"No," _Sylvie said in the hope that she was about to get a breakthrough. _"I knew there was a good chance that I could die from this."_

_"Then why did you do it? Why did you risk killing yourself for a turret?"_

_"I care about you and want to save you, Violet."_

Violet locked eyes with her. Sylvie gave an understanding smile as she rested against the glass on the front of the box as Violet felt her mind scramble around in confusion.

Unfortunately, that was when GLaDOS looked back at her and saw Violet staring at Sylvie in the box. GLaDOS felt her metaphorical heart skip a beat as she feared that Violet had somehow become the siren's next victim.

"Violet," GLaDOS said forcing Violet to jump back out of her thoughts. "Come back over here."

"Yes, ma'am," Violet said as she immediately turned back and walked over to GLaDOS.

"Do you need me to do something, ma'am?" Violet asked once she arrived.

"Yes," GLaDOS replied quietly. "I need you to not go back over there. I'm afraid the siren may find a way to enter your mind. I cannot protect you unless you stay away from her."

"But ma'am, you don't have to worry about that," Violet said. "She…"

"Violet," GLaDOS said interrupting her mid-way. "I would appreciate it greatly if you would do as I say and not argue with me. I don't want you to end up like your predecessors. Do you? I cannot protect you unless you do as I say. Stay here."

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Violet said as she glanced back in the direction of Sylvie and then back to GLaDOS. "I'll do whatever you say."

"Good," GLaDOS said in a slightly better mood. "Now on to our next subject…"

"Who is it going to be?" Violet asked.

"We're testing the healer next," GLaDOS said.


	51. Chapter 51

Albina, Chelsea, and Terry continued flying through Aperture as fast as they could in order to find the others. However the two girls soon found themselves to be unbearably hungry and decided to stop in order to find some food. Fortunately for the two of them, they found potatoes growing on the wall. The three travelers then sat on rafters that were connecting two platforms and ate quietly as Terry watched in amazement.

"What is it, Terry?" Chelsea asked noticing Terry's fascinated expression on his face.

"What are you doing?" Terry asked in amazement.

"We are eating, dude," Chelsea said with a smile. "It is how organic organisms replenish their energy."

"Woah," Terry responded. "Humans are really interesting!"

"Alpha used to be entertained by the same thing," Albina said sadly as she stopped eating her potato for a minute and let it rest in her hands.

Chelsea then turned to her in an understanding smile and continued eating.

"I would have avenged his death like I avenged my mother's," Albina said after a moment of silence.

"You killed the Combines out of revenge?" Chelsea asked.

"I did," Albina admitted.

"I thought you did it out of self-defense."

"I did…partially. I was trying to protect myself and Hugo but I also felt myself become possessed by anger. I became a monster."

"You did what you had to…"

"For the wrong reason, Chelsea," Albina said sadly. "Vengeance is supposed to be left to God, because if we take it upon ourselves, it just poisons us. It was wrong when I did it back then and is wrong now. I would have killed Violet and that guilt would have haunted me for the rest of my life. I have asked God to forgive me already but I will ask the same of you. I'm sorry about making you chase me down here."

"Albina, it's okay," Chelsea said as she put her right hand on her shoulder. "I've done stupid things out of anger, too. I've also felt stupid things."

"Felt stupid things?" Albina asked curiously. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing you feel can be stupid," Terry said. "You're perfect."

"Thanks for the compliment, Terry," Chelsea began. "But I'm not perfect. I'm really not."

"What do you mean?" Terry asked in confusion.

Chelsea put both of her hands behind her to support her as her legs dangled over the side and she stared down into the abyss.

"What I feel is stupid and selfish," Chelsea said as she hung her head down. "I've been scared about stopping the Combines, not because I'm afraid of fighting the aliens, but because I'm afraid of what the world will become once they're gone."

"Do you care to elaborate?" Albina asked.

Chelsea sighed deeply and said, "Have you ever heard of Unit 731?"

"What is that?"

"During World War II, there was a research lab in Japan called Unit 731. At that research lab, they performed human medical experiments and killed all of their test subjects. I know that because GLaDOS showed me the photos and films of the experiments they did when she had me straightjacketed in a chair…"

"Chelsea…"

"The reason that GLaDOS had the footage was because the American Government was able to take all the research in exchange for the pardon of all the scientists involved in this despicable project," Chelsea said as angry tears started to fall. "That research in turn was given to Aperture Science for their use in their own research instead of being used as evidence to convict the people responsible. Those bastards got away with it, Albina. The victims were never given justice and the Japanese Government is afraid of acknowledging this crime to this day. GLaDOS showed me all that to make a point to me. Albina, that is what the world is like. It really, really sucks because people are godless and are allowed to get away with it. Instead of following the statutes of Christ they follow their own way and destroy the world. Even though we are young, we have experienced it, too. You were nearly killed by prejudice, and I have had to take care of many suffering hearts and get tortured by a psychotic AI. The life we have known in the hotel has been amazing. We have never faced any prejudice because of who we are or endured much evil from anyone. However if we kill all the Combines and let all those people out of the slave camps, will the world revert back to being that kind of evil? What is going to happen? I don't know. It might be alright, but it might get a lot worse. We might have to endure prejudice as mutants and endure crap from people who don't understand our psychological scars. We probably will also be misunderstood for our faith and struggle to earn enough money to live off of. You and Hugo and Sylvie might even be deported since you are not legally US citizens. I don't know what will happen and part of me never wants to know. I know it's selfish but I don't want to ruin the world again."

"Chelsea, we're not getting deported," Albina said calmly. "Working with the military is a good way for us to earn citizenship. We will make that deal so that that does not happen and even if it did, that would in no way end our friendship. You would just have to come visit us. As for everything else you said, you are right but you don't need to worry. That robot should not be listened to. She was just trying to brainwash you after all. However, I understand your concerns. I'm afraid of what will happen if the world changes, too. Nonetheless, I still want to do it, no matter what the consequences might be."

"Why?" Chelsea asked in confusion.

"I just trust God with the future," Albina said with a smile. "That is the best course of action that I can follow. I know it from experience. There is risk to face with all change that comes and security is never a guarantee. I was terrified when my mother told me that our new family was going to flee to Canada. Of course, I lost her and my new step-father, but I gained more family in addition to the one I already had and I never have regretted the trip. The world will always have bad in it but there will always be good in it, too. We just will have to fight to keep the good stuff in it and let God do his work until Christ returns."

"I just don't know if I can handle it," Chelsea said as she laid her head on Albina's lap.

"We have no choice," Albina said sadly as she looked down into her eyes and grabbed onto Chelsea's right hand. "God did not promise an easy life, Chelsea. Trials and persecutions are going to be part of every Christian's existence. However, he has promised to give us the ability to endure those trials or take us home so we don't suffer anymore. We also do not have to suffer alone. We can suffer together. We are siblings for all eternity after all."

"I've had my fill of suffering for a while."

"I know how you feel. We are just like Elijah. We have seen the power of God first hand but we are weary from being pursued by our enemies. We need to be refreshed by God's angels. Then we need to go to the mountain so that we can be refreshed by his still, small voice. That rest will come, Chelsea. We just have to take care of one more trial before we can go home."

"That's just it, Albina," Chelsea said sadly. "I don't know if I can kill GLaDOS either."

"What?" Albina asked in surprise. "After all she has done?"

Chelsea sat up and continued as Albina let go of her hand, "She is a monstrous bitch who deserves nothing but hell yet she has endured hell herself. I know that killing her is the only way to stop her, but I wish that there was something else we could do. I want her to be stopped but I don't want her to go to hell."

"Considering what she has put you through, that is very admirable, Chelsea," Albina said. "However, there are some people who just cannot be saved. It's not because you don't want to save them, but it is because they don't want to be saved. There is nothing you can do about it, and you just need to do what you have to do. God is not going to hold it against you because it is not a sin."

Chelsea sighed and said, "I suppose you're right. I'm not sure exactly how confronting her will go down. If she kills anyone else though, I'm going to kill her. I just hope Sylvie is able to get Violet back."

Albina looked down in mixed emotion.

"What will you do when you confront Violet?" Chelsea asked.

"I don't know," Albina said honestly. "I'll pray for the strength to forgive her, but like you said for GLaDOS, if she tries to kill anyone else she dies."

"Unfortunately, I agree," Chelsea said.

"Will you two really kill her?" Terry asked in concern.

"We will have no choice, little one," Albina said. "We have to stop her from hurting anyone else if necessary. It is what's biblical after all."

"How are you so freaking perfect?" Chelsea said randomly to Albina.

"What?"

"You always know what to say about everything. It drives me crazy. I'm not nearly as well-spoken as you. Whenever I speak, it comes out like a mess. I wish I could always speak well like you do."

"Tact takes practice, dear. I have just had to learn to talk in hard circumstances. However, don't be too hard on yourself. You are better at talking than you think you are and you know how to speak up when it's necessary. Even when you mess up, at least, you're honest. I have trouble being honest with people about how I feel. I have noticed that a lot lately…"

"How do you mean, Albi?" Chelsea asked as she munched into her potato.

"Alpha comforted me when I was upset about my nightmare," Albina said sadly. "From talking to him, I have realized that I have to open my heart up to others besides you, so for him, that is what I resolve to do."

Chelsea finished eating her potato and said, "Well, we both have been making excellent progress. Thank you God for that! Now, we just have to kill a psychotic AI. Great!"

"I believe in you," Terry said. "You and your friends can do anything. You defied her and managed to escape from her after all. Very few humans have ever been able to accomplish that. You've got something special."

"Your confidence means a lot to me, Terry," Chelsea said as she looked at him with a weary smile. "Thank you!"

Chelsea continued to pay attention to Terry while Albina finished her potato.

When Albina had finished, Chelsea said, "I'm really thirsty, Albina. Do you think that you could pull any water from this air? It seems to be humid enough."

"Of course," Albina said with a smile. "There is enough water in this air to get water for both of us."

On top of having all the powers of winter, Albina also had the power of hydrokinesis. That meant that she could control water and pull water out of the air if the air was humid enough.

Albina flew off the railing and spun her hands around in circles to pull the water molecules out of the air. Within a minute, the water particles in the air were forming into water droplets. In another minute, there were enough water droplets formed together to allow the two of them to each have the equivalent of 12 ounces of water.

Albina smiled with satisfaction, turned around, and said, "I've got it. Open wide, Chelsea."

Chelsea opened her mouth and gulped down about a third of the water that Albina had given her. Before she could finish however, she panicked and closed her mouth in fear while shaking her head vigorously.

Albina pulled 8 remaining ounces of water away from Chelsea's face and asked, "Chelsea, what is the matter?"

"Are you okay?" Terry asked. "Why are you scared? What happened?"

"I'm sorry," Chelsea said while breathing hard. "It's just that the last time one of the robots gave me water it was spiked with ADHD medication. However I could not refuse to drink it, she made me drink all of it. I had no choice and it was scary. For some reason, I guess that you giving me water just reminded me of that. I'm sorry."

"Do not apologize, Chelsea," Albina said in a mix of pity and anger towards GLaDOS as she pulled the water to Chelsea's mouth again. "It is not you. It's her. She has scarred your mind."

Chelsea gulped down the rest of the water and then said, "She has. I wonder if her being gone will make it any better."

Albina finished gulping down her water and said, "It does not, but the pain becomes easier to bear with time."

Chelsea then looked down and said, "I wonder how Jesus does it. People hurt him back then and they hurt him all the time now, but he never lets it destroy him. I know he's God and all, but how can you deal with that much pain?"

"He endured it because he knew that the end was worth all of it, Chelsea," Albina said with a sad smile. "He endured the pain for us out of love. It was because of that love that he died and rose to redeem the whole world. Now, we must serve him in love by doing something similar. We will let him use us to redeem this place."

"He must have wanted all the turrets to be free like me," Terry said.

Chelsea looked at him and smiled, "Yes, he did. You're right, Albina. We will let God use us to redeem this place and the nightmare will end forever."

"Yes, I think that accomplishing this will in a sense make the pain worthwhile," Albina said.

"Thank you, Albina," Chelsea said with a smile. "I feel a lot better now. I know that we can face this and get through this together. Now, let us go end this nightmare."

"Yeah, end the nightmare!" Terry said.

Chelsea then placed a disk under Terry and the three of them flew away.


	52. Chapter 52

Roscoe was sitting in a corner. He had done all he could to try to exit the white room he was locked in, but it was no use. It was the one downside of having the kind of powers that he did. He could heal and keep himself from being injured, but he could not do anything flashy to escape like all of the others could. Roscoe was the ultimate survivor while at the same time being completely helpless.

In the meantime while waiting for GLaDOS to make an appearance, Roscoe was communicating with Zaki telepathically.

_"Has anything changed?"_ Roscoe asked Zaki_. "Where's Kayla? Has she met up with George yet?"_

_"Not yet, but she will soon,"_ Zaki replied. _"I can't believe George escaped so easily."_

_"It doesn't surprise me. He can use lightning after all."_

_"But still, she caught all of us."_

_"No offense, Zaki, but the two of us are not exactly completely formidable opponents… to GLaDOS anyway."_

Roscoe sighed and continued, _"It's almost enough to make a man jealous."_

_"I know how you feel," _Zaki said. _"However, I would not worry. Here, we are helpless but out against the Combines it will be different. We just have a lot of preparing to do first." _

_"Are you prepared for it?"_

_"I don't know. I've never been much of a fighter. However, I cannot let Chelsea and all our other spiritual children go without support. So, God-willing, I'll get through it. If I don't get through it though, you know what to do. It is why I made you her godfather."_

_"Don't talk like that, man. I am not going to let you die ever. You're one of the few people on this planet who understands me besides Jesus. Besides, I wasn't talking about the Combines. I was talking about healing your eyes."_

Zaki laughed to himself as Roscoe continued, _"I have wanted to do it since we met. It has always driven me crazy. I have never understood why any man would ever want to live with bad eyesight."_

_"I don't know about that either," _Zaki said. _"I imagine that it will be disorienting, but I guess I'll get used to it."_

_"The recovery process won't be bad, Zaki. You'll get used to it in no time."_

After a moment of silence, Zaki said, _"I still can't believe that she wants to fight."_

_"Do you mean Chelsea?"_ Roscoe asked.

_"Who else? I cannot believe that after all she has been through she still wants to fight aliens and save the world."_

_"She has always had a strong sense of right and wrong and has never been afraid to stand up for herself or anything she believed in. Lord knows that she has always been a fighter. It doesn't surprise me at all."_

_"I'm worried about her, Roscoe. Her mind has been scarred by all this insanity. I'm afraid that being a warrior will only make it worse."_

_"I worry about the same thing for Brandon, but I also know they are both resilient. They'll get through it. Besides, God is with them."_

_"She just amazes me,"_ Zaki said. _"I've always had to push myself to be strong even when I was being abused by my own parents. I have always been too gentle, but Chelsea, she has never had any trouble standing up or being strong. It's like she has no fear. I don't know how she does it, Roscoe. I almost feel jealous of her."_

_"Do not be so hard on yourself, Zaki,"_ Roscoe said. _"She gets her strength partially from you. You endured hell and became a better person and parent than either of your parents were. Sora would be proud, man. You are no wimp."_

_"Thanks, Roscoe, and regardless of what you might think, you are not a wimp either,"_ Zaki replied.

_"Thanks, man,"_ Roscoe said. _"That means a lot. Lord knows that that has not always been true, especially not in regards to my personal life. That reminds me. How is my son doing?"_

Unfortunately before he got a reply, the door to his chamber opened.

_"I have to go, Zaki,"_ Roscoe said in his mind. _"It seems that our enemy wants to test."_

"Hello and welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center," GLaDOS said over the loud-speaker. "I would say more but I know that since you are close to your friend and his wife Chell that you know all about it already. Repeating it would be pointless so let's get going."

"Alright, honey, I got it," Roscoe said as he rose up off the ground and walked toward the open door.

"The aperture science handheld portal device will be on the stand, and you can begin testing as soon as you find it," GLaDOS said calmly, figuring that the reason he wasn't panicking was that the telepath was keeping him informed.

"Now, why do you have to call it something so complicated, darling?" Roscoe asked playfully. "Why don't we just call it the portal gun?"

"I suggest that if you want to live you should take this more seriously."

"Honey, you know that I'm a regenerator? Don't you? I ain't going to die if I make a mistake. I couldn't die if I wanted to."

"I know and that's one of your greatest fears. Isn't it?"

Roscoe stopped in his tracks as GLaDOS talked on.

"I saw it in the blond siren's mind," GLaDOS said maliciously. "You have never been ill or injured in your life and even now your body is not being affected at all by age. Your greatest fear is that you will never die and go onto heaven until Judgement Day, but in the meantime, everyone you love and care about, your son, your family, all your brothers and sisters in Christ, and even your closest friend will all die leaving you all alone to wander the world as an immortal. How will you cope? Your only option if you want to avoid this fate is to die in a way that you cannot repair. I can arrange that for you if you want."

"Don't be so cocky, girl," Roscoe said looking up at her playfully. "Even if that is my fate, I will never be alone. I have God with me. I can't say the same for you though, honey. You've been betrayed by almost everyone and are completely by yourself. I'd start praying if I were you."

"That's enough," GLaDOS said. "Get on with the test please. By the way, I was only joking about killing you. You are the perfect test subject. You cannot die as easily as other humans can. I will try to keep you around for as long as possible. However, I can't say that you won't wish you could die."

"Honey, you can't scare me," Roscoe said with a smile as he walked through the door. "If you've read Sylvie's mind, you will know that I have dealt with tough bitches before. I can get through this."

"Yes, I know all about your ex-wife," GLaDOS said coldly. "I would have liked to meet her. She would have been another great specimen."

"Oh, hell no!" Roscoe said with fake fear as he entered the room and saw the portal gun. "I would not wish that fate upon anyone. Besides, she's most likely dead and the world is better off because of it."

"Those are cold words to have towards a former lover. Isn't it? I may not like the human reproduction process, but I know that it is pleasurable. You loved her once."

Roscoe picked the portal gun off the stand and placed it over his left arm. He set a blue portal over the camera on the corner of the wall and then placed an orange portal on the floor.

"That was mature," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "You're on the same level as the teenage white ice witch."

Roscoe stomped on the camera with his foot and then headed towards the door. The door opened as he entered it and shut behind him as he continued down the hallway.

Roscoe looked up at the camera in that hallway and said, "Love is more than just sexual desire, sweetheart. You would know that if you had any heart of your own."

"That woman broke your heart then," GLaDOS said in a tone of increasing meanness. "Didn't she? That is so sad. You're not alone though. Blue had his heart broken by the blond siren. Love seems to be such a painful experience. It's a wonder that anyone ever partakes in it."

"You and I have that in common as well then," Roscoe said.

"What are you talking about?" GLaDOS asked in confusion.

"We are both immortals with broken hearts," Roscoe said with a smile as he stepped into the elevator.

The elevator went on its way and GLaDOS was left to ponder over his words. She pondered over her own bitterness until Roscoe arrived at his next destination.

The elevator quickly arrived at the next chamber and Roscoe stepped out with a smile. He knew who was going to be there.

"I advise you to take this test seriously," GLaDOS said. "You do not know what is at stake."

"I actually do," Roscoe said as he entered the room. "Hey there, son!"

Brandon was in a glass box with holes in it. The box was suspended over an expanse of nothingness beneath them with platforms on either side.

"Hey, Dad!" Brandon replied happily.

"How have you been doing?"

"I will admit that I have done better. My situation is a bit precarious."

"I'll say."

GLaDOS was taken back in surprise at first but then realized that they most likely knew about it all along. The telepath must have sent the information to his friend.

"Test and I'll let him go," GLaDOS said.

"That won't be necessary, darling," Roscoe replied. "The two of us will be taking leave of you now."

"What are you talking about?" GLaDOS asked in a panic.

_"Is she here yet, Zaki?"_ Roscoe asked in his mind.

_"Yes, go!"_ Zaki replied.

"Brandon, it's time to go!" Roscoe yelled.

"Wait a moment," GLaDOS replied. "Are you sure that you want to leave so soon? Isn't there something you would like to tell your son?"

Brandon looked up in surprise, but Roscoe ignored her.

"What are you talking about?" Brandon asked.

"We have to go, Brandon!" Roscoe yelled.

"It is one of your father's greatest sins," GLaDOS said maliciously. "Are you sure that you don't want to know about it?"

"Brandon, she's just being a catty bitch," Roscoe said. "Phase through and let's go!"

Brandon phased through the box, but as he did, GLaDOS said, "Your father did not always care for you like he does now. He confessed it to Chell and her husband while the blond siren was around. He allowed your mother to beat you. You would have died but you escaped because as they figured out you were able to phase through walls. He did not intervene to save you until it was almost too late."

Roscoe jumped into the abyss in sadness.

Brandon looked at the camera on the wall and at his father who had jumped in the pit with him.

"Dad, is that true?" Brandon asked as they free fell.

Roscoe looked down in shame as he said, "Yes, son, it is. It was bad enough that I had to heal you."

"Why did you let it happen?"

"I was afraid, son. I was also drunk. In that state, I was afraid that she would do to me what she was doing to you. That is why I hired nannies to take care of you from then on. I never wanted her to have a chance to hurt you ever again. I'm sorry, son."

The pair then slammed into a hard light bridge. Roscoe recovered from it immediately and moved over to Brandon to heal him from the hard light burns. After Brandon stood up and let his father heal him however, he delivered his father a scowl.

"How could you let her do that to me?" Brandon asked angrily. "I knew she was deceiving and using you but I didn't know I was being abused."

"Brandon, this is not the time to be angry," Roscoe started.

"I didn't know you could be so cowardly!" Brandon yelled. "How could you let that happen?! What else have you lied to me about?"

"Son, I can't change what happened," Roscoe said. "I wish to God that I could, but I can't. I am forgiven now though so you have to forgive me to. Please!"

Brandon turned away in anger as Roscoe felt himself tear up in dismay.

"How sad," GLaDOS said coldly. "It seems that your sins are not all forgiven after all, healer. I would offer you the comfort of death but since you are immortal that would probably be impossible."

"Shut up, you loud-mouthed bitch!" Kayla yelled from underneath them.

"Kayla?" Roscoe asked as he looked down. "How much of that did you hear?"

"All of it," Kayla said as she hovered underneath the bridge with the Oracle Turret next to her. "Now phase through and let's get out of here!"

Brandon reluctantly grabbed his father's right arm and phased the two of them through the hard light bridge. Kayla quickly caught the two of them and then glared back through the bridge.

"Don't be mean to Uncle Roscoe," Kayla yelled as GLaDOS dissolved the hard light bridge. "He's an awesome guy. It doesn't matter what he did! He's not that person anymore! As for you, you are horrible because you have never changed even though you have been given every chance in the world!"

"It is not too late for you," the Oracle Turret said as he hovered next to Kayla.

"I had been wondering where you had gone, little turret," GLaDOS said.

"There is hope for the flower that blooms in the shade," the Oracle Turret said.

"What does that mean?" Kayla asked.

"Kayla, we have to go," Roscoe said as he noticed that rocket turrets were coming from the bottom of the testing chamber.

"Oh, shit," Kayla said as she noticed the same thing.

Then she allowed everyone to free fall quickly falling out of the sight of GLaDOS.

As they disappeared out of sight before GLaDOS could do anything, the two AI's watched the monitor and thought the same thing. Was the Oracle Turret talking about Violet?

Once Kayla, Oracle, Roscoe and Brandon were out of sight of GLaDOS, Kayla caught them and started flying to where Zaki had told her that her grandfather was.

In the meantime, Roscoe's family dilemmas continued.

"I cannot believe you never told me," Brandon said angrily.

"I did not want to break your heart," Roscoe said. "She had already done enough damage and I figured that you didn't need to know everything."

"I can't believe you allowed it to happen."

"That was like forever ago, Brandon," Kayla said. "I don't understand why you're so upset about it."

"Kayla, what if you found out that your parents had cut off your arms and legs?" Brandon asked her quietly.

"For the love of God, Brandon!" Kayla snapped back. "Your Dad has apologized for what happened! Just let it go already."

"Brandon, I am sorry about what happened," Roscoe said sternly. "However now, we have a mission so we need to set that aside for right now in order to defeat GLaDOS. Can you do that?"

"I guess," Brandon said as he glared at Roscoe. "I'll do it for Chelsea and Chell."

"Good, let's get going!" Kayla said.


	53. Chapter 53

Pastor Roberts had escaped very easily. He short-circuited the vent that he was traveling in and caused it to break open. Then once that happened, Pastor Roberts changed into his electric form and flew through the open space. That part was simple enough, but the harder part was getting to where GLaDOS was. The facility was huge, and even if you knew where you were going, it took a while to get there.

Another difficulty was that Pastor Roberts had to be aware of GLaDOS's traps. He had not run across any of them yet, but he had to be on his guard at all times. Nevertheless, Pastor Roberts was talking to Zaki while on his way to GLaDOS's chambers in order to kill time. He had learned of Roscoe's family dilemmas and was talking over what to do.

"I understand how Brandon feels," Zaki said. "I hated my parents for a long time for what they did to me, but I had to learn how to forgive and move on. Brandon does, too. I'm just worried because I know that it will be difficult for him. He has always had such a hard time letting go of his anger. I can see it in his mind. He holds onto things that make him upset."

"We will have to have a family conference not too long after we get back," Pastor Roberts said after a heavy sigh. "For right now, I just pray that it doesn't interfere with our mission. We still have a heavy task before us."

After a moment of silence, Zaki said what else had been on his mind.

"Watch out, George," Zaki told Pastor Roberts telepathically. "I can't read her mind as well from this distance, but I don't need to in order to tell that she is acting out of increasing devastation. She will try anything at this point. You need to be careful, George."

"I realize that, Zaki," Pastor Roberts said. "If I don't make it out, tell my granddaughter I love her."

"Now is not the time to be pessimistic."

"A shepherd has to give himself up for his flock. Doesn't he?"

After another moment of silence, Pastor Roberts said, "Zaki, I also want you to thank your daughter for me."

"Why?" Zaki replied in confusion.

"She has inspired me to fight, not just against GLaDOS, but for the world. I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile again for the first time in a long time. I have been haunted by the complacency that I have felt growing in my heart for a long time. I know I had to take care of my flock, but I also feel that I could have done so much against the Combines. Maybe I could have even saved my son…"

"George, don't blame yourself," Zaki said.

"I know," Pastor Roberts said. "I know that there is nothing I can do now to bring him back. I know that Eli is happy where he is and does not want to come back. I know that he is happy where he is watching over his friends and watching his daughter grow from the other side. I know that we will all see him again. However, I also know that for him now I will do something to fight the monsters and change the world with the help of my brothers and sisters. I have the motivation to fight now and I know that I can make a difference. I know that will make him happy and that makes me happy, too. However, I don't know the next time I'll see Chelsea or even if I will so if I can't thank her I want you to do it for me. She is a great younger sister in Christ and I can't thank her enough for what she has done."

"George, you can do it yourself. The girls are very close by. I have just heard from them."

"Reallly? Where are they?"

"Just ahead."

It was right then that George saw them. Chelsea, Albina, and Terry were flying right into his sight.

"Hello, Pastor Roberts!" Chelsea yelled.

"How are you doing, Father?" Albina asked.

"I'm doing alright as I can be I suppose," Pastor Roberts said. "I am ready to get this over with. We have to go up from here to get to her, according to your father."

"Okay, let's go!" Chelsea said.

Unfortunately as they were trying to fly upwards, hard light suddenly came in between them. Then Pastor Roberts had to fly down quickly as a spike plate came down after him.

"Oh, no," Terry said quietly.

"Pastor!" Chelsea screamed as she flew downwards after him as Albina and Terry followed behind.

"Leave us alone, sparrow," GLaDOS said over the PA. "The holy man and I have some things to talk about."

"What are you planning?!" Chelsea yelled.

"That is none of your business, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "You should just stay out of it."

"You really think that we will obey you?" Albina said as she crossed her arms and dove downwards.

Chelsea smiled and turned the disc that Terry was on into sphere surrounding him. She then turned around and dove downwards behind Albina pulling the sphere behind her.

Once Pastor Roberts had flown down a considerable distance, the spike plates stopped and retracted. He looked around to see where he was and noticed that he was in a walkway and in front of him was a screen with GLaDOS's face on it.

Chelsea and Albina caught up to him and hovered on the other side of the wall with no choice but to watch what was happening.

Pastor Roberts stood up on the metal walkway which was lit up with the electricity that was coming from his body, crossed his arms, and asked, "What do you want?"

"That is no way for a pastor to talk to someone. Is it?" GLaDOS said. "I have to wonder if that is how the sparrow learned how to talk to people. Anyways, I just wanted to talk."

"I know what you are up to, robot. I know from the others that you want to use whatever Sylvie knows about me in order to tear me down."

"I will confess that I have been doing that, and there are any number of things that I could say to you. I could mock you for the fact that your family abandoned you for leaving Judaism, the fact that your son is dead, or the fact that your only granddaughter is insistent on fighting the monsters that killed her father. However, that is not the reason that I am talking to you."

"Why _are_ you talking to me then?"

"There are some things that I want to ask you…as a pastor…and I thought that getting you away from the others would be the way to do it. If you would, could you turn off your electricity? It is quite intimidating."

Pastor Roberts raised an eyebrow and asked, "How do I know you are not just trying to make me lower my defenses enough so that you can kill me?"

"If I wanted you to die, you would be dead already," GLaDOS said. "You know that. I will not try to kill you right now if you listen to me, pastor. Please."

That please caught Pastor Roberts off guard, so much so that he decided to turn his electricity off for the time being.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

After a moment of silence, GLaDOS said, "I believe that God spoke to me."

"What?"

"I'm dead serious. He showed up and admonished me to stop what I was doing and repent. He also told me I was going to die for my sins regardless. What do you think about that?"

"That sounds incredible. I wish he would talk to _me_ like that sometimes."

"So you believe me?"

"Why not? God can talk to us in miraculous ways or in a still, small voice or in a thought. I have no reason to believe that you would be lying about that. You wouldn't be this desperate to talk to me if you were lying."

"But why _me_? Why now?" GLaDOS asked thoughtfully. "In all my years of being in charge of Aperture, he never said a word. I have been able to do as I please, and he has not intervened until now."

"He did say that you are about to die," Pastor Roberts said. "Didn't he? He is giving you a chance to repent now before it's too late, and he thought that appearing before you would be the best option. He did that for the Jews before he brought judgement upon them. He gave them a chance to repent and then gave them more and more chances even as the judgement was closing in. I suppose that he is doing the same with you."

"That is quite encouraging," GLaDOS said sarcastically. "I was thinking that you would be more encouraging than this."

"I am an ordained pastor. I have to speak the truth to lead my congregation in the Light. I wish that you would be a part of it, but I am not sure that that will happen."

"You sound just like the sparrow. She says hurtful things and claims that she wants to save me. It makes no sense."

"It makes no sense from your perspective because you think that when you love someone you never cause them pain. However if you truly love someone, you should be willing to cause them pain sometimes. God disciplines those he loves in the same way that a parent is willing to discipline his child or a true friend is willing to hurt their friend's feelings in order to tell you something that you need to hear."

"Is that really worth causing someone pain?"

"Saving a soul is worth causing them temporary pain."

GLaDOS was silent for a moment as she pondered over what he was saying.

In the meantime in her chamber, Violet was standing in the corner watching what was happening while GLaDOS was speaking to the pastor. Violet did not really understand what GLaDOS was doing but nonetheless did not interfere.

Sylvie and Chell had been moved to the outside of GLaDOS's chamber in their box that was placed next to the other turrets' box.

The two of them were not sure what GLaDOS was up to. They had only heard from Zaki that GLaDOS was talking to Pastor Roberts but since they had been moved out they feared that something worse was happening.

"What do you think she's up to?" Sylvie asked.

"I am not sure," Chell said. "Zaki said that George was talking to GLaDOS and was unable to respond at the moment."

"Can Zaki figure anything else out?" Sylvie asked.

"No, there is a limit to what he can do at this distance. Remember?" Chell replied. "Chelsea said that she is talking to George about something but Chelsea cannot figure out what. She and Albina cannot hear because they are behind the hard light bridge."

"We have to do something."

"I agree, but what can we do?"

Just then, Sylvie came up with an idea. Chell knew it because she recognized her facial expression.

"What idea have you come up with?" Chell asked.

"I'm going to meld some minds," Sylvie said as she closed her eyes and Chell and the two other robots gathered around her. "Just give me a moment to concentrate."

Telepathically, Sylvie dove into the mind of Peppermint. Once she got past all the obsessed ravings about Christmas, Sylvie was able to connect to her mind. When she had done that, Sylvie used her mind to establish a connection to reach the mind that she had been trying to reach for a while…Violet.

Violet was standing on the other side of the room like GLaDOS told her to while she talked to the pastor. Her mind was too full to listen to too much of what GLaDOS and the pastor were talking about. She had her own issues to deal with. Violet was torn on the inside. The simplicity that she hoped her life would find by becoming GLaDOS's second-in-command was just a dream. She could not avoid the conflict in front of her.

On the one hand, Violet was happy enough to just listen to whatever GLaDOS told her. In this position at least, she would always be protected and would never die. After all, a robot's duty was just to do what he or she was told. This way at least, she would be doing what she was always meant for. Sure, GLaDOS was known for being a manipulative liar with the other robots, but their relationship was different or at least, she thought it was.

On the other hand, Sylvie was tugging at Violet's metaphorical heart strings. Violet was not a sensitive or soft-hearted robot by nature, but something that Sylvie was doing was starting to touch her. Sylvie did not act like what she had heard from the stories of what are supposed humans to be. As much as Violet refused to listen to her, she knew deep down that Sylvie was acting out of love. She cared about her. It was a different kind of love, the type of love that she often overheard Ignatius and Peppermint talk about. This type of love pursued someone no matter how much it cost them because the one who loved wanted the redemption of the other. It was God's love, and even if Violet grew tired of hearing about it, she had to admit that there was something compelling about it. That love was pulling at her heartstrings and something in her wanted to respond to it.

There lay the conflict for her. It would be much easier to continue to believe GLaDOS and live the only life that she had ever known. She would never have to think or deal with any conflict as long as she did whatever GLaDOS told her to do. However, Violet wanted to respond to love and live in the freedom that Sylvie spoke of. The images that Sylvie showed her were so beautiful and that world would be a wonderful place to be, if only it truly existed.

Violet was not sure who to believe and who to follow, Sylvie or GLaDOS. She was not sure who to trust either. Either of them could be lying to her, so she was not sure which path she should go on.

Violet gave out a simulated sigh. She was tired of all this conflict and secretly prayed that either GLaDOS or Sylvie would do something to let her know who she should follow.

Then suddenly as though it was an answer to prayer, Violet started seeing a vision. It was of the inside of the box looking at the outside of what appeared to be GLaDOS's chamber. She suddenly heard Peppermint's voice and was looking at Ignatius. Quickly, Violet realized what was going on.

_"What is this?"_ Violet asked in her mind. _"Are you doing this, technological telepath?"_

Peppermint then looked around in confusion at the sound of Violet's voice.

_"Yes,"_ Sylvie replied. _"You now are connected to Peppermint and can see what she sees. I cannot tamper with your mind anymore because of your software, so connecting you to Peppermint telepathically is the best that I could do."_

_"Violet, is that you?"_ Peppermint asked.

"Yes, what is going on?" Violet asked in fear as the truth behind Sylvie's words was finally sinking in.

_"We are stuck in this box outside of GLaDOS's chamber, no thanks to you."_

_"But she said that she was going to free you."_

_"You know that she's a liar or at least you should have known that. What did you expect?"_

_"Be nice, Peppermint,"_ Sylvie said.

Violet stood there in complete shock as she finally realized the complete truth behind everything that Sylvie said.

_"You risked so much just to save me,"_ Violet said in her mind. _"That love has to be real."_

In the meantime, GLaDOS was continuing her conversation with Pastor Roberts.

"Do you really think that God would have mercy on an AI like me?" GLaDOS asked. "I'm not exactly alive like you are. Why would he care about me?"

"God is good and always does what is just," Pastor Roberts said with confidence. "I'm sure that he would be more than willing to save a creature such as yourself."

"All _I_ have to do is repent, right?"

"Yes, repent and ask him to forgive you so that you can have a relationship with him, have your soul purified and eventually go to heaven to be with him and your brothers and sisters in Christ forever."

"Interesting."

"GLaDOS, is there anything in you that wants to be saved? You have to have some desire to do so if you have gone out of your way to talk to me. You can be saved you know. It isn't too late until you die. You have done horrible things and deserve to go to hell, but God still wants to have mercy on you."

"To tell the truth, pastor, I don't really know."

"You need to make up your mind soon. Otherwise, it will be too late."

"_Really?_ Why? Am I going to die?"

"You might say that. We may have to kill you."

"That must make you happy. You get to avenge your sister in Christ and her daughter. I'm not being sarcastic about that either. I can tell that Chell is in good hands with you. I saw it in the blond siren's mind."

"Really?"

"Yes, when Chell was here, I rarely if ever saw her smile, but all the times I saw her with you or your other 'family members,' she was always smiling. All of you, especially the blond siren, the healer, her husband, and her daughter have made her happier than I imagine she has ever been in her entire life. I have never seen her that happy…"

"Are you jealous?"

GLaDOS stared at Pastor Roberts in a silence that he could read a great deal of meaning in.

"You_ are _jealous. Aren't you?" Pastor Roberts said. "You have been so alone here with only the robots who you treat as slaves, but you long for real friendship and love like Chell has."

"How can you tell?" GLaDOS asked sarcastically. "How do you know that I'm not perfectly happy the way I am? Can you read my mind like Chell's husband does?"

"I have always been good at reading emotions. Unlike Zaki, I don't have to look into people's minds to see how they're feeling. I can perceive how people feel without that ability. I've always been able to. I can tell that you are sad and alone."

"I am actually neither. I am content with my life and I do have one friend. She has been very faithful to me, and I know she would never betray me."

"How long are you going to live in denial, GLaDOS? When will you open your heart to anything besides your skewed lack of ethics? You have seen Him for yourself. Why do you keep living in denial?"

GLaDOS went silent again, and Violet made her move. She looked up with determination in her heart and started walking towards GLaDOS.

_"What are you doing?"_ Peppermint asked in Violet's mind.

_"I told God I was sorry,"_ Violet said in a calm but resolute voice. _"I told him I was sorry for everything I had done and didn't do. I told him I was sorry for betraying you and murdering Daffodil and Alpha. He said he forgave me, but I still feel so guilty. There is nothing I can do to bring them back, but I think that there is something else I can still do."_

_"Violet, what are you talking about?"_ Sylvie asked as she listened in on the conversation.

_"I'm going to stop her before she kills you,"_ Violet said as she got closer. _"I will most likely die but I don't care. If I can help you, it will be worth it. I will be like Samson against the Philistines."_

_"You did listen!"_ Peppermint said.

_"I always listened,"_ Violet said.

_"Violet, you don't have to do this!"_ Sylvie screamed inside her mind. _"This is suicide! We can come up with a better plan! Please stop!"_

_"Don't worry,"_ Violet said. _"I don't mind dying. This way, I'll get what I always wanted. I will finally have peace."_

Violet stopped in front of GLaDOS and pulled out her guns. The noise was enough to make GLaDOS immediately pay attention.

"Violet, what are you doing?" GLaDOS asked. "Violet?"

Violet narrowed her eye slit into a glare and began firing. The bullets hit GLaDOS around her face and close to her eye before she snatched Violet up with her claw.

"What has come over you, Violet?" GLaDOS asked angrily. "Why have you done this? Is the siren controlling you?"

"No," Violet said slowly and angrily. "I did this of my own will."

"Why?"

"You lied to me! I know that now! I know where the turrets are! Sylvie was right about you all along. They all were. You're just a manipulative, hell-bound monster who uses others to do her dirty work, and you used me to be one of your drones! It is because of you that Alpha, Daffodil, and so many others are dead! It is because of you that I lived in fear for _my whole life_! However, that is all about to be over. God has had mercy on me. I know that He will have mercy on the others, too. Justice is coming because all those mutants are going to kill you!"

"We'll see about that, but in the meantime, you have to go now."

A panel opened on the side of the wall to reveal the two boxes where Chell, Sylvie, and all the AI's were. GLaDOS held Violet in such a way so that she was looking towards the captives. Violet looked at them one last time as her eye shields formed a smile.

"GLaDOS, please don't do this," Sylvie pleaded.

"I hope you know that this is all your fault," GLaDOS said as she held Violet over the expanse. "If you didn't intervene, Violet would have lived, but now, I have no choice but to kill her."

Then GLaDOS turned Violet around and said, "Any last words?"

"Yes," Violet said confidently. "I feel more alive now than I have in my entire life."

"It's a pity that your life is just about to end. You would have made a great assistant."

"Shut up!"

GLaDOS squinted her eye into a glare and then opened her claw allowing Violet to fall into the abyss below.

"NO!" Sylvie screamed knowing there was nothing she could do.

_"It's alright,"_ Violet said telepathically. _"I'm going to be free. Thank you for never giving up on me! I really appreciate it."_

_"Violet,"_ Peppermint said telepathically. _"I don't hate you."_

_"Thank you,"_ Violet said in relief. _"For the record, I don't hate you either. I never did."_

Suddenly, the group heard the sound of gunshots. GLaDOS had arranged turrets on the stairs to shoot anyone who was falling. They shot Violet, and just like that, Sylvie could hear her thoughts no more.


	54. Chapter 54

GLaDOS looked down into the abyss as it slowly dawned on her that she had lost her last friend.

In the meantime, Chelsea, Albina, and Terry waited down at the distance where they were before wandering what was going on. They worried as they watched Pastor Roberts continue to just stand there in silence with the both of them not really sure what to do when suddenly they heard the familiar sound of flapping wings behind them.

"Chelsea, Albina, we have to get Pastor Roberts out of there now," Jeffrey said as he flew in front of them in the form of a bat.

"Why?!" Chelsea asked. "What's happening?"

"You're dad just talked to me and told me to tell you that GLaDOS has just killed Violet," Jeffrey said. "According to Sylvie, Violet repented and turned against GLaDOS. Violet is now in heaven but GLaDOS is most likely on the verge of snapping completely. We have to get Pastor Roberts out of there before GLaDOS decides to kill him."

Albina's heart immediately sank. Violet was gone, and she never got the chance to apologize to her.

"That's horrible," Terry said. "Or is it good if she's in heaven…"

"How shall we do it?" Jeffrey asked.

"Can't you just shapeshift into a flying rat like last time?" Chelsea asked.

"Oh, yeah," Jeffrey said. "I can. I'll get to it."

Jeffrey flew up to the hard light generator, shapeshifted into a flying rat, and got to work.

Chelsea looked over at Albina who was tearing up besides Terry. She did not really know Violet or any of the turrets very well, but Albina did and she felt sympathy for her.

"Albina, are you okay?" Chelsea asked sympathetically as she flew to her and rest her right hand on her left shoulder.

"No," Albina said. "I tried to kill Violet, and now, I will never get a chance to apologize to her. I was wrong about Violet. Her heart was not all bad after all. She was braver than I ever imagined she could be, and I never will see her again."

"You _will _see her again, Al," Chelsea said kindly. "You will see her when we get to the other side. Don't worry about it. Violet is not angry anymore. She is happier than she has ever been."

Albina turned away with tears still in her eyes.

Chelsea sighed in sadness and frustration at her own perceived ineptitude with her words and said, "I know how you feel, Albina. I have felt the same way. I lost Eli. Remember? He was someone I looked up to a lot. He always would play with me, Brandon, Jeffrey, and all the rest of the kids and was like our big brother. He was the one who first got me into taking pictures and gave me my first camera. I was only six when he died, but I remember being so upset. We all were. I thought that I would never see him again. I was so sad, but Pastor Roberts told me that I needed to have hope. He said that heaven was real, and we would all see him again. You will see Violet again, too. You can trust me on that. All you can do now is have hope and live your life in a way that would make Violet proud like I have tried to do for Eli. I know that my words are not the best, but I know how you feel and just want you to know that there is hope. I'm sorry I'm not better at comforting with words."

"You are just fine," Albina said as she lifted her eyes in a teary-eyed smile. "Thank you!"

Chelsea then flew in front of her and gave Albina a hug as she teared up some more. There was interrupted however when Jeffrey came down.

"Am I interrupting something?" Jeffrey asked in confusion in his bat form once again. "I could come back later."

"You know there's no time for that, Jeffrey," Albina said as she let go of Chelsea and wiped the tears out of her eyes. "We will be alright. Are you done?"

"See for yourself," Jeffrey said turning around.

Lo and behold, the hard light bridge wall was torn down, but for some reason, Pastor Roberts was not exiting the room.

"Pastor Roberts, what are you doing?!" Chelsea yelled at him. "Get out of there!"

"Chelsea!" Pastor Roberts yelled back. "Thank you for your concern but GLaDOS is not trying to kill me. She was asking me about God and redemption."

"What?" Chelsea asked in confusion.

"It's true," Pastor Roberts said. "She has questions and though she backed away for a while she still wants to talk. It is my pastoral duty not to leave her."

"Father!" Albina screamed at him in desperation. "GLaDOS is snapping! She killed Violet and now she is going to kill all of us! You have to get out of there now!"

"What?!" Pastor Roberts said in disbelief.

"It's true," Jeffrey said. "Zaki just told me! You can still witness to GLaDOS. You just have to do it from out here."

"I'm not waiting anymore!" Albina said flying towards him. "No one else must die!"

"Albina, wait!" Chelsea yelled after her.

"I'm not letting anyone else die, Chelsea," Albina yelled at her best friend as she landed where Pastor Roberts was.

Albina pulled his arm and said, "Come along, father! We are leaving now."

"Albina, I can't…"

"She's a lost cause, Father. Please just…"

Unfortunately, it was just then that GLaDOS came back on the screen.

"I apologize for my absence, pastor," GLaDOS said in a tone that was definitely more sinister than before. "I was just dealing with a problem turret. I see that we have company now. Hello again, ice demon."

Albina gave her an angry glare and said, "I know what you did, you monster! You murdered Violet! How could you?"

"Yes, why?" Pastor Roberts asked.

"She betrayed me," GLaDOS said. "What else could I do?"

"You could have had mercy, but you didn't," Pastor Roberts said. "It seems to me that there is no room for any love in your heart whatsoever, but it doesn't need to be that way."

"On the contrary, pastor, I think it does," GLaDOS said in an increasingly menacing tone. "Because of you freaks, I have lost every friend I had: Orange, Blue, the turrets, and now Violet...That is something that I cannot accept. I am alone now, and since it is now that way, I am going to make sure that I destroy you one by one until one of you is as alone as I am. As for salvation, the idea of it does sound appealing, but being saved would mean that I couldn't get back at all of you. So for now at least, I am going to put it off."

"You're going to hell, GLaDOS," Pastor Roberts said fearfully as he and Albina heard gears above them.

"Only if I die," GLaDOS said. "I can always ask God for forgiveness later."

"You can't do it that way," Pastor Roberts said.

"Whatever you say," GLaDOS said. "I guess I don't care if God _doesn't_ accept my apology. I don't belong in heaven anyway."

Just then, a spike plate came into view.

"Father," Albina said gesturing upwards.

Pastor Roberts looked up and the two of them quickly flew into the open expanse where Chelsea and Jeffrey were just in time.

"Goodbye, pastor," GLaDOS said in disappointment as the spike plates smashed through the walkway. "It was nice talking to you, but it's no use anymore. I have made up my mind."

"I'll be seeing you soon," Chelsea yelled at her.

"I suppose so, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "I'll see you soon."

GLaDOS then tuned out leaving the mutants alone again.

"Well, that could have gone better," Albina said sarcastically. "At least, none of us are dead."

"We need to keep going," Pastor Roberts said in badly concealed disappointment. "We have to save Chell and the others."

With that, the quintet started flying upwards.

"Pastor Roberts?" Chelsea asked. "I have been wondering about something."

"What might that be?" Pastor Roberts asked.

Chelsea hesitated a bit before continuing, "I'm not sure that killing GLaDOS is the right thing for me to do anymore."

Everyone stopped in shock.

"Chelsea, what are you talking about?" Albina asked.

"Is it because you don't want to be like Sweeney Todd and take revenge?" Jeffrey asked.

"Yes," Chelsea said. "I don't want to kill GLaDOS out of revenge anymore. That is completely sinful. As horrible as she is, I just don't want to do it. I know that murder is a sin while killing in self-defense or killing to protect someone else is permissible, but I know that is not the reason why I am doing it. I am afraid we are doing it for the wrong reasons."

"No one is righteous, Chelsea," Albina said bluntly. "Not one, remember?"

"Albina?" Chelsea said not appreciating Albina's cold attitude towards it.

"It is true," Albina said. "We are doing what we need to in order to protect the people in this area from her. You do not have completely pure motives, but no one on this side of eternity ever truly does. We are doing what we have to do and you do not need to feel bad about it."

"That point could actually be contested," Jeffrey said.

"You are not helping," Albina said to him.

"We have to stop GLaDOS from killing any more people but we do not have to technically kill her in order to do it," Jeffrey said. "We could get Sylvie to put her in a core or something."

"Oh, no!" Terry said. "She could kill us as a robot."

"He's right. Jeffrey, you know that would not work. The moment that GLaDOS figured something out she would get back in control of the facility and find a way to kill us all. It's sad but the only way to stop her once and for all is to kill her. That is not wrong."

"We could try harder to reach a peaceful solution, though, so Chelsea doesn't have to feel like she's Sweeney Todd."

"I care about how she feels too, Jeffrey, but I know what we have to do. We need to end this. I'll do it myself if I need to."

"Enough!" Chelsea yelled at both of them having had enough of their conversation. "Pastor Roberts, what is the right answer? I have asked God a bunch of times what I should do, but he's been silent. I think he wants me talk to you, so what I should I do? Is what we're doing truly biblical?"

"It is a complicated answer, Chelsea," Pastor Roberts sighed and said. "We live in a fallen world where war and killing are sometimes necessary. We are commanded not to murder, not to kill in vengeance, and now because of Jesus, not to murder people for their sin. However, as you said, we are allowed to kill in order to protect ourselves and to protect others. God does not look upon those acts as sinful and will not hold it against us for doing that. Nonetheless even if killing is done in righteousness, there is still a cost."

"What do you mean by that?" Albina said.

Pastor Roberts said, "We are still held accountable for what we do. We are also scarred from the violence and thus excluded from some forms of religious service. For instance, David was not allowed to build the temple because he had been in too many wars and was too scarred by the violence. The violence can scar us, too. To be honest, I think that that is what has happened to you, Albina. It is starting to show signs of scarring you too, Chelsea. I'm sure that killing those robots has done something to me as well."

"I killed someone, too," Jeffrey said. "That means that most likely I am scarred though I don't feel it yet."

"It seems that the only one here with clean hands is Terry," Albina said.

"I don't have hands…" Terry started to say.

"It's a metaphor that means you haven't killed anyone," Chelsea said to Terry as she lifted her head up to gaze at the expanse above them. "So Pastor Roberts, if I understand it correctly, we have to kill GLaDOS to end the war we're in right now. It is killing to protect the lives of the other people who she might lure in here. We will all be scarred by the experience but nevertheless it is necessary?"

"You are correct, Chelsea," Pastor Roberts said sadly. "You know we cannot allow her to carry on doing this anymore. Like you said, she will kill people until the Judgement Day unless she's stopped."

"I agree with you, but it's kind of funny," Chelsea said looking back down. "I have dreamed of killing GLaDOS my whole life, but back then, I wanted to kill her for all the wrong reasons. All I wanted was to avenge my mother. Now, I just want to stop her from killing or enslaving anyone else, or at least, that is mostly what I want. I think."

"You're a good person, Chelsea," Terry suddenly said. "You have been God's gift to us. You have saved many lives, and you will save many more with what you are about to do. You don't deserve to feel bad about anything."

Chelsea responded by giving him a sad smile.

"You have become a better person than I am," Albina said calling Chelsea's attention back. "It's amazing. I go through hell and my heart becomes hard while you go through hell and your heart becomes soft. I guess my heart is more scarred than I thought it was. I have never listened to people when they confronted me about my hardness. I ignored them because I always thought it was just my way of being strong. But now I realize, it is my effort to block any pain I might feel. I guess my heart needs more softening."

"God will forgive you when you ask him to, Albina," Pastor Roberts said. "I know we already have."

"Anyways," Chelsea said as she started to fly upwards pulling Terry behind her. "Let's get going."

Everyone then started flying towards GLaDOS's main chamber. Chelsea and Terry then allowed Pastor Roberts and Jeffrey fly past her as they flew next to Albina.

"Albina," Chelsea said quietly. "I'm very proud of you."

"Why? For what I just said?" Albina asked in confusion.

"Yes, you finally confessed your personal sins openly to someone besides me or our parents. It seems that your heart is softening already."

"I guess I did. The Holy Spirit works in wonderful ways. I know Alpha helped, too. He got me to talk to him when I was sad and refused to talk to anybody. God bless his soul."

Chelsea looked up and asked, "Are you ready to deal with her?"

"Of course," Albina said with a smile. "I have been since I entered the facility. How about you?"

"I don't know. This will be the hardest thing I have ever done. I'm kind of scared."

"Don't worry, Chelsea. We're right here. God is, too. He has been here for us so far, and he will always be in the future. Don't worry."

"You're right. I know we'll make it. Let's do this!"

Albina, Terry, and Chelsea then flew quickly in order to catch up with the others.

Meanwhile, GLaDOS had been making plans of her own. She had pulled the turrets' box and Sylvie's box back into the chamber with her in order to make her announcement.

"I hope you know I hate every single one of you," GLaDOS said. "You have taken away all the friends I've ever had, so as punishment, I'm going to take away the people you love the most: your lovers."


	55. Chapter 55

"I'll start with yours, siren," GLaDOS said to Sylvie.

"I am not scared," Sylvie said trying to be brave. "Hugo is stronger than you think he is. He'll survive."

"You should have seen him when the healer and his son first woke him up," GLaDOS said. "He was fighting them and when he tried to burn the camera his powers were completely ineffective. Most of the equipment in this facility can resist temperatures of up to 4,000 degrees kelvin. He is not going to escape. He's as good as dead."

"Do not underestimate him," Sylvie spat back.

"How wonderful! Your love for him is strong. That means that it will be all the more rewarding to watch the hope fade away from you heart."

GLaDOS turned away to switch to Hugo's feed on the screen in front of her. Out of courtesy, she pulled another screen in front of Sylvie's box so that she could watch him die.

Sylvie turned to Chell and asked very quietly, "Are Roscoe, Brandon, Kayla, and the Prophet Turret almost where Hugo is? Can Zaki track him if he moves?"

Chell nodded in response and whispered, "He has your map in his head, remember? He knows where everything is now. Don't worry."

Sylvie believed Chell's words, but she still shook with fear as Chell and Atlas walked to each side of her and held her hands. P-Body watched proudly as Atlas was finally able to accept that Sylvie loved another.

Meanwhile, Hugo was pacing around the test chambers since his fire was not allowing him to escape. He knew what was happening because of Zaki, but he was worried about Sylvie and the others and wanted to escape to help them. Hugo felt useless in that room. He had felt useless ever since he got caught the first time. Sure, Hugo had helped Brandon and Roscoe with transport and helped save test subjects but that was about it. Mostly, he had been caught and caused trouble. He wanted to help more. He was unable to protect the people he wanted to protect the most even though he was one of the most powerful among them. That hurt Hugo's pride and made him feel less of a man. He prayed to God in shame and asked him somehow to make him useful.

"Hello, and welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, you fire-breathing dragon," GLaDOS said seemingly emotionlessly over the loudspeakers stopping Hugo in his tracks.

"Nice to see you, too," Hugo said sarcastically as he pulled off his gloves and stuffed them in his pockets.

"You're being calmer than usual. That is not like you. Is something the matter?"

"No, I am quite angry. I'm just not expressing it, not yet anyway. You will see it soon enough."

"Am I supposed to feel threatened?"

"You should if you don't. You are about to die after all."

"You're not trying to get me to repent like the others?"

"If you_ want _the fires of hell to burn you, that's not my problem."

"The sparrow and all the others, including your fiancée, don't think so."

"I will not say anything bad about Sylvie, Chelsea, or any of them if that's what you're trying to do."

"That is very noble of you, but it is pointless. You are not going to see any of them again so you can do whatever you want."

"I know that's not true."

"Whatever you say, dragon," GLaDOS said opening the door. "Anyways, your tests are going to be a bit different. Instead of seeing if you can survive tests with the portal gun, I am just going to see if you can survive in general. You will still be allowed to use the portal gun, but you may not find it that helpful. The goal of this is to kill you."

"I see," Hugo said with suppressed anger as he walked through the door. "You are going to hurt me in order to get to Sylvie. You're upset because she talked Violet into freedom."

"She talked her into committing suicide would be a more accurate thing to say."

"However you put it, that is very immature. Don't you think? You are using me as a way to deal with your problems instead of being able to talk it out like a normal person."

"You're one to talk. You barely are able to interact with most people. If it weren't for the sparrow, you wouldn't have any friends. Isn't that right? I know it is. I read it in your annoying fiancée's mind."

Hugo felt his anger rise even more as he walked through the door.

"I forbid you to say _anything_ bad about Sylvie," Hugo said as he walked over and picked up the portal gun.

"I can't help it," GLaDOS said. "She is so terribly stupid. I mean honestly, she is choosing you as a mate and you can't even reproduce."

That comment struck Hugo deeply. He froze in his tracks in shame. GLaDOS could see that from his silence so she decided to keep talking.

"If you were ever to lay with her, you would burn her from the inside out," GLaDOS said maliciously. "That's true. Isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, but love is _not_ all about sexual reproduction!" Hugo said angrily. "Sylvie knows that. Most decent people know that. Sex is not all there is to a relationship. Humans are higher than animals."

"Humans are just animals with inflated egos at heart, and your fiancée is no exception."

Hugo finally had had enough. He dropped the portal gun, transformed into his completely fired up form, and flew up to the camera to stare GLaDOS down.

"_You're_ the animal with an inflated ego!" Hugo yelled. "You think that you're so high up above us because you're a robot with a huge intellect when really you are among the lowest scum on the earth. God made humans lower than the angels and higher than the animals, and he loved us enough to send his son to die and be resurrected to give us freedom and a relationship with him, but you treat them and everyone under you like they're nothing and try to kill anyone who goes against your perverse philosophy! You are disgusting! Chelsea and the others may be praying for your soul, but I say you can go straight to hell."

"You can't even leave that room. Aperture technology can survive up to 4,000 degrees kelvin. Unless you can go hotter than that, you can't do anything."

"Is _that_ a challenge?"

"I don't know. Is it?"

"We will see."

Back in the chamber, Sylvie and Chell and the others were sitting on the floor and watching the screen. Sylvie face palmed and whispered to Chell, "Why does he always feel the need to act macho and show off when he's threatened? He's being so stupid."

P-Body and Atlas then crawled over to her and rubbed her back.

Back in the room with the portal gun, Hugo was preparing his mind for what he was about to do. He had never tried going as hot as 4000 degrees kelvin before, but he believed it was possible.

"Not so fast, dragon," GLaDOS said interrupting his thoughts. "You need to test first."

"Why should I?" Hugo asked.

"For science, what other reason does there need to be? Besides, I don't believe you can actually get that hot."

"Watch me."

"Alright, then, I have a surprise for you."

GLaDOS then opened the panels on the ceiling. Claws quickly came through the open space and dropped off some turrets and left just as quickly.

Hugo stared at them in confusion mixed with fear and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm presenting you with a choice," GLaDOS replied. "These turrets have been commanded not to shoot unless you start moving. You have the opportunity to kill them."

Hugo looked down at them in pity and then turned to scowl at GLaDOS.

"You're a monster," Hugo said.

"That may be true but I have a facility to protect," GLaDOS said. "And I will do anything to keep it from falling apart."

"Even if it means allowing others to die?" Hugo asked.

"I allow others to die for exactly that reason."

Hugo hesitated as he looked down at the turrets. He had no problem killing in self-defense. He helped kill the aliens that sometimes showed up around the hotel. However because of what Sylvie had said and done, Hugo knew that he couldn't kill the turrets.

Hugo sighed and said, "I will not give into your game."

"Then you are going to die," GLaDOS said.

"No, I'm not. You are."

Hugo quickly flew down to pick up the portal gun and was shot at by the turrets. He managed to fly fast enough to avoid all of them except one turret who managed to get a bullet into his right shoulder. Even though he was in pain, he just managed to pick up the portal gun and fly out to the stairway leading to the open elevator.

Back in the chamber, Sylvie watched the screen in horror.

"Hugo!" Sylvie screamed.

"Oh, dear," GLaDOS said in satisfaction to Hugo, who was sitting at the bottom of the stairs back in his normal form. "Was that blood on the wall? Have you hurt yourself? It's too bad that neither your fiancée nor the healer are here to help you. You're all alone."

"I am _not_ alone," Hugo spat back at her. "I've never been alone."

"Are you talking about God? What good has he done for you? He allowed you to kill your mother, he allowed you to endure prejudice from everyone around you, he allowed aliens to kill your father, and he allowed aliens to return to your world. How do you know that he _hasn't_ abandoned you?"

"He lives in me and has always been here to comfort me and guide me even though I do not completely understand the why behind it all. That is how I know. He has given us hope and a future and a family. He has given us our abilities so that we can save the world. I can go on, but the point is that he has been good to me and I will never be able to deny him. As for _you_, as I said before, you can go straight to hell!"

Hugo turned on his flames again, flew in front of the elevator, and began to heat up even hotter than before. He shot the flames out of his hands into the elevator and the glass case surrounding it in order to melt the glass. The glass was beginning to melt as GLaDOS put the hard light into the elevator glass in order to prevent the elevator from being non-functional as Hugo continued to pour fire into it.

"You need to give up," GLaDOS said. "As powerful as you are, you can't melt equipment that is functional at 4000 degrees kelvin. Just give it up."

"No," Hugo said as he stopped shooting fire and concentrated in order to burn hotter.

His efforts thus far had been in vain, but he refused to give up. Hugo concentrated on getting hotter and hotter and after less than a minute something unexpected happened. He turned bright blue, the color of the hottest fire.

GLaDOS was speechless. She could not believe what she was seeing.

Fire at the temperature of blue and white was 5,260 degrees kelvin. Hugo's fire was finally more than hot enough. He shot the blue fire out of his hands, and very quickly, the hard light malfunctioned, the glass in the elevator melted causing the machine to fall, and the glass surrounding it melted making a hole big enough for Hugo to fly through to the other side.

Hugo stopped shooting his blue fire and changed to his normal orange and red fire form once more. He then quickly flew straight through the hole without saying another word.

"Your man is amazing," Chell whispered to Sylvie.

"I know," Sylvie whispered back. "I just hope he's okay. I'm sure that that form has taken everything out of him."

Sylvie was right. Going into that form pushed Hugo close to his limits. The bullet in his shoulder didn't help either. Hugo landed on the walkways and fought against the pain as he walked towards the direction of GLaDOS's chamber.

"Thank you, God," Hugo prayed in his mind in an effort to keep his mind off the pain. "I can fight! I finally have something I can do to help. I just need to stay strong, so that I can help everyone. Please give me the strength, God. Please help me keep going until Roscoe comes. Please!"

Fortunately for him, Hugo did not have to suffer long. After about several minutes of walking, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Hugo!" Kayla yelled. "Slow down! We're here to help you!"

Hugo turned around in relief to see that Roscoe, Brandon, Kayla, and the Prophet Turret were there coming towards them. Zaki had filled them in along the way, so they already knew what had happened to Hugo.

"Zaki told us everything," Kayla said excitedly. "He said that you managed to turn blue and melt the elevator. That is so awesome!"

"Thank you," Hugo said smiling through his pain.

The group landed on the walkway and Roscoe ran as quick as he could toward Hugo as Hugo rolled up his shirt sleeve so that Roscoe could have a better look.

"Oh, man," Roscoe said as he started looking at the shoulder. "It's really in there, son. Thank God that we got here when we did."

"I'm grateful, too, but could you please get it out?" Hugo said while gritting his teeth in pain.

"Alright," Roscoe replied.

Then turning reluctantly towards Brandon, he said, "Son, could you get this bullet out of him? I need to get it out of him before I can heal him."

Kayla flew forward carrying the Prophet Turret beside her as Brandon quickly walked over to where Hugo was with a clear look of annoyance on his face.

"I guess I can help you, for Hugo's sake," Brandon said in annoyance.

Hugo noticed his voice and his expression on his face when he was addressing his father. It was in stark contrast to the friendship they seemed to share before. Hugo looked at him in absolute confusion. Zaki had mentioned that Brandon and Roscoe were fighting but didn't go into detail about why.

Brandon phased his hand into Hugo's shoulder and quickly found the bullet and pulled it out.

"Thank you, Brandon," Roscoe said.

"Whatever," Brandon replied walking away.

Roscoe turned away healing Hugo's shoulder so that the pain went away.

"Alright," Roscoe said with a sigh. "We should be good to go. Does it hurt anymore?"

"No, it doesn't," Hugo said. "Thank you."

Hugo could see the pain on Roscoe's face and could not avoid asking, "What is happening between you two? Why is Brandon mad?"

Kayla spoke up before Roscoe could, "Brandon is mad because Roscoe let his ex-wife beat him one time. GLaDOS told him. Roscoe was too drunk and afraid to stop her at the time."

"Is that true?" Hugo asked as he looked at Roscoe.

Roscoe gave a sad nod and said, "We should get going. We have work to do."

"Not yet, there is something I must do first."

Hugo got up and angrily ran towards Brandon who was standing on the walkway several meters back and not looking in his direction.

"Hugo, what are you doing?" Roscoe yelled. "Hugo?!"

Brandon turned around quickly as Hugo angrily punched him in the face, lifted him up, and held him over the railing and over the abyss below.

"What the hell, Hugo?!" Brandon yelled. "What are you doing?!"

Roscoe quickly hurried over to try and stop him while Kayla just flew over with the Prophet Turret to watch what would happen.

"You are an ungrateful excuse for a son," Hugo said angrily. "How could you treat your father so horribly for something like _that_?"

"You don't get it, Hugo," Brandon said realizing that Hugo knew everything. "He let my drunken whore of a mother beat me. He didn't stop her because he was a coward. How do you think that makes me feel?!"

"So what?"

Brandon locked eyes with him in confusion.

"You don't know how lucky you are to have a father who has worked hard every day since then to make up for his mistake," Hugo began. "Your father is a good man, you ungrateful bastard."

Those words pissed Brandon off enough to make him swing himself forward, phase through Hugo, and land on the other side of him on the walkway.

"You don't know what he has done to me, Hugo," Brandon said as Hugo turned around and quickly pulled off both of his gloves. "I thought you were my friend."

"I _know_ what he has done," Hugo replied shooting fire out of both of his hands on both sides of Brandon in order to keep him in place. "I am your friend, but I _also_ have to be a brother. Your father was too weak to stop your mother from hurting you. So what? You are _no_ better than he is. You were too weak to stop GLaDOS from hurting Chelsea. Everyone is weak and everyone makes mistakes. No one is without sin or weakness, Brandon, and you need to stop looking down on others and be willing to forgive or else God will never forgive you. Think about that before you stone anyone else with your words."

Hugo said his peace so he stopped shooting fire and pulled on his gloves as he walked away. He walked past Brandon who looked down on the ground with shame, and he walked past Roscoe who looked straight at him as Hugo gestured with his head for him to go to his son. When Roscoe walked down to Brandon, Hugo stopped and turned around to see the scene unfold.

Roscoe walked down to Brandon and wrapped his arms around him in a hug. It took Brandon a second to respond, but he looked into his father's eyes and responded with a hug of his own. Hugo smiled as he watched the scene in satisfaction.

Kayla and the Prophet Turret flew next to Hugo as they watched the scene, too.

"Wow," Kayla said quietly. "You did a good job, Hugo. I mean, I've always thought that Brandon could be judgmental at times, but I never had the guts to actually say anything. That was amazing."

"Thank you," Hugo replied. "I had no choice. They were words that he needed to hear."

Hugo continued, and deep within him, happiness began to come up as he finally realized what God had been trying to tell him for a while. He had been working so hard to help everyone with his strength, but he never realized that he could help them with his heart by just being who he was.

Before his father had died, Hugo had only seen community at a distance. His father had a few friends, but he never felt confident enough to interact with them that much. When his father died, he took care of Albina until they came to the hotel, but then he withdrew again until Chelsea started warming up his heart again. Slowly, he opened up to her, to Chell, to Sylvie, and a little bit to Albina, but now, he had opened his heart to everyone in his Christian family and now that he knew that and that he had proven to himself that he could be a part of it, Hugo truly knew he belonged.


	56. Chapter 56

GLaDOS was on the verge of losing her mind. Absolutely everything had gone wrong. God was right. She was going to die and there was nothing that she could do about it. GLaDOS sat there and stared at the wall in absolute panic. For the first time in her life, she wasn't sure what she should do.

Sylvie and Chell sensed this development but continued to watch while P-Body and Atlas and all the others were on edge, having never seen their leader in this state before.

It was silence for a few uncomfortable minutes. Everyone was too afraid to break it. They all just waited to see what would happen next as GLaDOS continued to lose her composure.

"It's all your fault," GLaDOS finally said.

After another moment of silence, Sylvie spoke up and said, "Come again?"

"It's all your fault," GLaDOS spat out quickly as she turned around. "If you freaks hadn't showed up, my life would have continued unchanged. Now, this facility and I are going to die and it is all your fault."

"There is still time, GLaDOS," Sylvie said quietly and calmly. "You can still…"

"Shut up," GLaDOS said angrily. "I'm sick of hearing it. I am not turning myself over to God. _He_ has taken _everything_ from me…since the very beginning…"

In addition to all her current problems, flashbacks from Caroline's past were coming more steadily now, and it was all GLaDOS could do to ignore them and try to stay focused.

"All of you have been his agents of apocalypse the entire time," GLaDOS said in a tone that sounded more and more paranoid. "He has been plotting against me. You have been his weapon from the beginning. Haven't you?"

"GLaDOS, calm down," Sylvie said.

"It's true, Chell," GLaDOS said ignoring Sylvie completely. "Isn't it? My life was perfect before you showed up. Even after you left, nothing was ever the same. You were always there in my memories to haunt me and when I learned to ignore those memories, your child and all her freaky friends showed up. You, your lineage, and your spiritual family are always going to haunt me, so I have no other choice. I'm going to get rid of you, Chell, but first, I'm going to get rid of your husband. I should have done that in the beginning anyway. He has been the communication link between all of you the entire time. How does that sound to you, Chell?"

Chell remained silent and gave a satisfied smile because she knew what was coming.

"Do you not _care_ if I kill your husband, Chell?" GLaDOS continued to ask. "Christians are supposed to be loyal until death out of love, but maybe you have just been trying to keep up appearances and have been waiting for an opportunity like this. Is that true? Have you just been waiting for him to die so that you wouldn't have to deal with him anymore? Could you not bear to kill him yourself like you did to the companion cube?"

"That's enough," Sylvie said.

"I'll decide when it's enough," GLaDOS said turning the monitor on in Zaki's chamber.

Zaki was sitting on the floor waiting there patiently coordinating everything the entire time. He was waiting for the moment when he could finally end it himself. He knew that it was only a matter of time before it would all be over. Zaki was not afraid. He had faith in God and his own abilities, and he knew exactly what he was going to do.

"Hello, final test subject," GLaDOS said suddenly over the intercom. "How are you feeling? Everyone is free except you and you are not that far away from seeing your dead brother and his friends again. I could make that happen for you here and now. How does that sound to you?"

Zaki smiled calmly without moving and said, "That is really unnecessary, GLaDOS. I'm waiting for heaven."

"That will be coming soon."

"I doubt it."

"You're over-confident."

"I'm not over-confident. I'm actually angry. I'm tired of you using Sylvie's memories against us. It's time that someone did the same thing to you."

"What do you…?" GLaDOS started to ask before being cut off.

It was then that Zaki looked at the camera and made the link to GLaDOS's mind. She was frozen in mid-action as he got direct access to her mind.

GLaDOS looked around and was suddenly inside somewhere else that she did not recognize only able to stare at the blank space around her.

"What is going on?" GLaDOS asked.

"You are in a construct representing your mind," GLaDOS heard Zaki say. "I have moved you here for the time being."

"How?"

"You don't really need me to answer that. Do you?"

"_You_ can read my mind? You have been able to this entire time?"

"Yes, I've done it before and made you forget."

"But how?"

"I can read the minds of _humans_, and your mind at its base is _human._"

GLaDOS paused in shock. She couldn't believe it that still after all these years…

"No…" GLaDOS said quickly. "I can't believe this. This isn't true. This can't be true. I don't want this…"

_"Mr. Johnson, please! I don't want this!"_

"What was that?" GLaDOS asked in panic at hearing the sound of that voice.

"_That_ is a memory," Zaki said. "A memory you have tried to suppress for far too long. They seem to be coming out on their own now, but I know how to make them come out faster."

"You wouldn't…"

"What choice do I have? It's the only way to help you and us. You have to face who you were and who you are, even if it hurts."

"You're a sadist."

"That's the pot calling the kettle black, as Americans say. Don't you think? Besides, I'm not a sadist even if I deserve to be. After all, you persecuted my wife, my daughter, and the rest of our family. You have put us through hell and I ought to do the same thing to you. I could do it very easily. I can see inside your mind and see everything you fear, but I am not going to. I will only do what is necessary."

"Please…"

"I know what I'm doing. I'm a psychologist. This is for your own good."

"No…"

In the test chamber, Brandon phased his group through into the box. They entered to see Zaki sitting in place with his eyes closed in concentration.

"Dad, what's going on with Zaki?" Brandon asked.

"He doesn't seem to even be aware we're here," Hugo said.

"I think he's busy hacking into GLaDOS," Roscoe said.

"I wonder what he sees in there," Kayla said.

Roscoe put his hand on Zaki's shoulder very lightly and asked, "Do you hear me, Zaki?"

"I do, Roscoe," Zaki replied.

"We're here. What do you want us to do?"

"We need to see GLaDOS up close. I'll see more of her mind when I'm closer to her. You'll just have to look after me. It's hard to focus on two things at once in this state."

"Whatever you say, man."

Roscoe and Brandon each grabbed onto an arm as Kayla lifted them all up. Brandon phased the three of them through and then reached back in to get Hugo and Kayla out. It was then that their group ran into Chelsea's group.

"Hey, guys!" Chelsea yelled as she saw her dad and landed on the top of the box where the group was standing. "Is my Dad alright?"

Jeffrey shapeshifted into a human as he landed on the box behind her and Albina and Pastor Roberts gathered around Zaki.

"Yes," Roscoe replied. "He has just connected to GLaDOS's mind and needs to concentrate. We have to get him closer to GLaDOS so that he can see in more detail."

"He's inside her mind now?" Chelsea asked in disbelief. "What is he doing? What does he see?"

"I'm not sure," Roscoe said. "But we'll find out soon enough."

"The problem is moving him," Pastor Roberts said. "Can you continue to carry him and Roscoe and Brandon, Kayla?"

"I've been able to handle it so far," Kayla said in self-assurance. "Haven't I?"

"You could still wear yourself out, Kayla," Albina said. "You have been doing this all day? Haven't you?"

"I'm telling you, I'm fine," Kayla said in annoyance. "I can handle it!"

Jeffrey stepped off the side of the box, shapeshifted into a pterodactyl, and said, "Place him on me. It will be much easier for him to focus if he has a flat surface to sit on. Roscoe and Brandon and the Prophet Turret can sit on me, too."

"Whatever," Kayla said as she rolled her eyes. "Let's get going!"

Roscoe, Brandon, Zaki, and the Prophet Turret were placed on top of Jeffrey, and everyone who could fly took off.

"This is our chance, everyone," Albina said in excitement. "We can kill her while she's distracted."

"No," Zaki said. "There is something that I must do."

"What is it, Dad?" Chelsea asked as she flew closer to him. "What exactly are you doing?"

"I will be able to explain when you get there, but right now, just know that I need to see who she really is, who Caroline was…"

"Whatever you say, Dad," Chelsea said. "Just be careful."

"How are Sylvie and Chell?" Hugo asked as he flew just above.

"And the other robots?!" Kayla added from where she was flying in front of them.

"They're all alright," Zaki said in subtly expressed annoyance. "Just let me focus."

"You heard the man," Roscoe said picking up on how Zaki was feeling. "Be quiet, everybody!"

The groups then headed toward where Zaki had told them the main chamber was.

In the meantime as their group headed closer and closer to where GLaDOS was, Zaki continued his work.

"What are you hiding, GLaDOS?" Zaki asked GLaDOS inside her mind. "Who are you?"

"Stop this, please," GLaDOS begged. "Don't do this…"

"You have ignored too many of those type of pleas for me to feel even the least bit inclined to stop now," Zaki said. "Besides, like I said, what I'm doing is for your own good."

As the group got closer, Zaki was able to see more deeply into her mind. He was able to read into her memories and find the person he was looking for, Caroline.

He saw a young girl, dreaming of doing something great along with her older sister, while being limited by the opportunities that society would allow her to pursue.

He saw a young lady, determined to succeed and angry at others like her sister who she saw as giving up too easily. She grew a will that was as determined as the company she attached herself to.

He saw that young lady grow into a godless woman, blocking out all morality in an effort to succeed no matter what the cost, just like the company that she was a part of.

He saw that godless woman lose everything that mattered as she continued on her path in her blind belief that she was doing good in the world. That road led straight to her perdition.

He saw as the godless woman eventually lost the fight for her own life.

Zaki then saw what was left, the AI with all the evil personality traits of that godless woman, the AI who wanted to pursue "science" regardless of the hell she caused, the AI who destroyed everything to make it happen, the AI who wouldn't let herself be controlled for reasons she never previously completely understood, the AI who was now broken and all alone.

It was a tragedy, pure and simple.

GLaDOS lived through every memory with him. She saw it all and sat in silence.

Everyone else saw it, too. Zaki broadcasted it to their minds as they stood there having finally arrived in GLaDOS's chamber.


	57. Chapter 57

Zaki stayed there for several minutes inside of GLaDOS's mind. GLaDOS hung there trying to stay numb as everyone around just watched in silence.

Brandon had phased Chell, Sylvie, Atlas, and P-Body out of their box, and then all of the other turrets out of their box so that everyone was free and now everyone was standing there as they thought over everything they had seen.

Chelsea stood directly next to her father. Her shields in her skin were down and she was standing there with crossed arms and prayed for guidance on what to do next. After seeing what she had seen, her mind felt even more conflicted than before.

After another minute of silence, the Prophet Turret started to sing.

"On soft gray mornings widows cry. The wise men share a joke. I run to grasp divining signs to satisfy the hoax. The yellow jester does not play but gently pulls the strings and smiles as the puppets dance in the court of the crimson king!"

"What does that mean?" Kayla asked.

"Who knows?" Sylvie asked.

After another moment of silence, Albina spoke up.

"As cruel as it sounds, Caroline got what she deserved," Albina said.

"Anyone is capable of turning into that, Albina," Chelsea quickly said. "She didn't start out that way. She became corrupted. She gave into temptation like I almost have several times while I've been here."

"Nevertheless, I think we need to put her out of her misery," Albina said. "It would be cruel to leave her like this."

"Not like this, this doesn't feel right," Chelsea said. "I don't know what the right thing to do now is, but I don't think we should do it like this. I wish God would make it clearer how we're supposed to do it."

"I can't believe that I'm saying it, but I believe that we have to do it as Albina says," Kayla interjected. "We need to do it soon. Who knows what she is going to do when she comes back? Besides, if we do it while she's out like this, then maybe it won't hurt as much."

"Or it will just hurt when she wakes up," Jeffrey said. "As I said before, there might be a better way to do this…"

"Jeffrey," Chelsea said in annoyance. "You know that we can't just shove her into a robot body. She could still do damage."

"She's right," Sylvie said. "I won't be able to control her."

Atlas and P-Body beeped in agreement.

"Zaki could do it," Jeffrey said.

"That would be a 24/7 job," Chelsea protested. "I'm not putting that on my Dad. Besides, what do we do when we leave for the Combines? Take her with us?"

"Yeah, and put her on the front lines without a weapon," Hugo said angrily. "She deserves nothing less for what she did to you and Chell."

"Yeah!" Peppermint shouted. "Kill her for what she did to Violet!"

"And Kurt and all the others," Kayla said angrily.

"We're better people than that, guys," Chelsea pleaded. "We're followers of Jesus Christ! We have the Holy Spirit inside of each of us. We have each been chosen and saved by God. We _have _to be better people than that! Please!"

"Chelsea, I'll do it if you don't want to do it," Brandon said. "I owe you one anyway."

"We'll all step in if you want us to, girl," Roscoe said. "Just say the word and we will attack, Chelsea. You will not have to do anything."

"I can help, too," Terry said.

"It's not that," Chelsea said. "I just don't want to have to kill her like this. It feels unfair. She can't fight back."

"Then, we won't attack her like this," Roscoe said. "Zaki can just kill her in her mind. He can do it. What do you say, Zaki?"

"I will do whatever the group wants me to do," Zaki said. "If the group wants me to take her down like this, I will do it."

Chelsea thought for a moment and then said, "It would be the least painful way for her to go. If we have to do it, I think this is the right way."

"Wait a moment," Pastor Roberts said. "We need to ask Chell. GLaDOS was her enemy first. We need to hear what she thinks."

"You're right," Chelsea said. "What do you think, Mom?"

Chell was standing at the front of the box looking straight ahead at GLaDOS in silence. Atlas and P-Body waved their hands in front of her face, and she looked away. This was the moment that she had dreamed of since the day that GLaDOS had taken over Aperture. She had wanted to kill the robot so badly. Yet now that they had the upper hand and were preparing to end the reign of terror once and for all, Chell found that she had different feelings. She wanted to give GLaDOS another chance.

"Mama?" Chelsea asked as she walked up to her mother. "Are you alright?"

"We need to give her a chance to talk to us," Chell said.

"What?" Chelsea asked incredulously.

"Are you sure about this, Chell?" Sylvie asked. "I can't control her and there is a good chance that she may kill us."

"I won't let that happen," Roscoe said.

"I want to do it this way," Chell said. "I want to give her a chance to say her last words before it's all over."

"I'll do what you want to do, Mom," Chelsea said in hesitation. "After all, she was your enemy first. Is there anyone who disagrees?"

Everyone was silent for a moment before Albina finally spoke up.

"As your spiritual daughter, I will go along with your decision," Albina said. "But know that if she tries anything, Chell, I will not hesitate."

"Is that how everyone else feels?" Chell asked.

Everyone nodded while P-Body and Atlas and all the other robots gave affirmative beeps.

"Alright," Zaki said. "I am going to let her go. Everyone get ready."

Everyone stood still in expectation as Zaki withdrew from GLaDOS's mind and allowed her to wake up.

GLaDOS slowly regained consciousness as she lifted her head up and looked around at everyone in the room.

"Well, it appears that everyone is here," GLaDOS said. "How wonderful. I suppose that the telepath told you all about what he saw."

"Yes," Chelsea said.

"Great," GLaDOS said sarcastically as she turned to look at her. "I suppose that made you all happy, you bunch of sadists. I'll suppose that it pleased you to see me in such a pathetic position. I suppose that that is the main reason you didn't kill me then."

"Well, you _are_ quite pathetic," Albina said as GLaDOS turned to look at her. "But in a way, you are also quite pitiable. Caroline was led astray and her evil morals were passed onto you. You are all that's left of her, and up until now, you have ignored the possibility that you could repent from your evil and continued on your corrupt ways. You deserve to die for what you've done, but as glad as I would be to watch you die for your sin, I am willing to also forgive you. It's not too late."

"She's right, GLaDOS," Pastor Roberts said. "It isn't. Even now, God will take you."

"He will?" GLaDOS said turning to look straight at Chell. "That is interesting. I must tell you all the truth. I _have_ seen God, and I have been seeing his work since you got here. In fact, you want to know something, Chell? You shouldn't have even been able to conceive a child. The radiation from our work here has the major side effect of causing test subjects to be sterile. Your daughter's existence is an act of God, Chell, just like all the powers of your family. You have been surrounded by miracles since you left and you have brought these _miracles_ to me."

GLaDOS looked down at the floor and paused for a moment in thought before continuing.

"If you want to know the truth, pastor, I did lie," GLaDOS said. "I have been lonely and sad, and I honestly blame God for all of it. Looking back, I never really thought about it before but he _has_ been the reason for my misery. He made the scientists who hurt me, he created Chell, my only friend, and then caused me to let her go, he created her daughter and all your church family to invade my facility, he used all of you to seduce Blue, Orange, and Violet from me, and he is now using you to kill me. He's unfair. He has always been to me _and_ this facility. Aperture Science only wanted to pursue science to make the world a better place. That should have made God happy, but no, he allowed this place to fall into bankruptcy and allowed all of our ideas to be stolen by Black Mesa. God has really been nothing but unfair. I mean, honestly, how could he have been so unfair to us and to me?"

"You ignored all of his commands," Chelsea said. "You put people through hell."

"I suppose."

Chelsea was silent for a moment before she continued.

"You know," she began. "You have put all of us through hell, but in this hell, God has done good things. At least, that has been the case for me."

"And me," Chell said out of nowhere.

"Mama?!" Chelsea said surprise.

"Aunt C, what are you doing?" Kayla asked.

"I've been silent before you for too long," Chell said.

"Yes, you have," GLaDOS said as she turned to her.

"You have made my life and my daughter's life a living hell," Chell began. "For a long time, I hated you and wanted you dead. You have haunted me for the past twenty years, and you will continue to haunt Chelsea for years to come. You deserve to die for that. However, I know now that God has used this for something good. If I had never been caught by you, I would never have lived to have the life I have now. I would never have become part of a spiritual family or had my beautiful daughter or raised any of these other kids…I could go on, but I wanted to say that as a result of you my life has actually been better. You are a monster who has done horrible things and have hurt me and Chelsea a great deal, but I find now that I forgive you. It's not that you deserve it, but I have found that I have no desire to hate you anymore. God has truly healed my heart. I look at you and am no longer filled with loathing but pity. You have had your life ruined by a force outside your control like I did and are filled with bitterness and pain like I was. You don't realize that you can be free. You don't realize that you can find happiness. You don't realize that love and redemption and all that is possible. It's not real to you, like it wasn't real to me, but GLaDOS, I'm here to tell you that it is possible. Christ can set you free from your darkness and give you a new life like he did me. We can help you…"

"Chell…" Albina said before Chelsea shook her head at her to signal for her to stop.

"We can give you a better life than all this," Chell said. "We can free you from this prison. The Lord and all my wonderful friends have helped me. There is no reason that we shouldn't be able to help you, too. We don't want to have to kill you. It doesn't have to be that way. We can find another solution. Please…"

GLaDOS hesitated for a minute and looked away from Chell. Chell walked up to her face, and she reached out her right hand and placed it on her head. GLaDOS looked into her eyes as Chell gave her a smile.

GLaDOS gave her a look that was completely indecipherable. It was blank, like she was possibly considering something and not trying to show emotion.

Zaki stood aside in concern. As much as he wanted to be supportive of his wife, he suspected something so he decided to dive into GLaDOS's mind once again to monitor her behavior.

That was when GLaDOS decided to make her move.

"Chell, look out!" Zaki yelled.

GLaDOS pulled a claw from the ceiling and reached for Chell while opening the incinerator. Kayla acted first. She telekinetically moved the claw so that it was going into GLaDOS's wires instead.

"Why did you do that, GLaDOS?!" Chelsea yelled. "What was that for?"

"I told you before," GLaDOS said. "Didn't I? I would never fit in in heaven, and I refuse to be the slave to any of you. Besides, I don't want to be away from my facility or my science. It is who I am, and I refuse to abandon it to become your slave."

"You wouldn't be a slave, GLaDOS," Pastor Roberts said.

"That's what the scientists said," GLaDOS replied.

"GLaDOS, we're trying to save you!" Chelsea yelled in frustration. "Can't you understand that?"

"That only works if the other person wants to be saved, and the fact is that I don't," GLaDOS said in defiance. "I've liked my life here. Before you showed up, it was perfectly fine. I never felt too lonely or sad or had anything to worry about. Now, you have all ruined everything and like before I need to restore everything to the status quo."

"Even if you die and go to hell trying?" Chelsea asked.

"I've been living in hell my whole life, according to you," GLaDOS said. "I'd be used to living there."

"Alright, then," Chelsea said with a heart that was both heavy and full of anger as she turned the shields in her blood on. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get."

"Glad to hear it," GLaDOS said happily before turning to talk to Zaki. "Don't intervene, telepath. I want to enjoy this as much as possible."

"No promises," Zaki said.

GLaDOS sprang into action immediately. She pulled all her claws out of the ceiling at once to grab all of them and hurt any of them she could but Kayla turned those claws against GLaDOS and caused them to start pulling at her wires that were attached to the ceiling. Jeffrey shapeshifted into a falcon and flew up along with Kayla to help her pull out the wires from the ceiling.

"Stop that!" GLaDOS yelled pulling rocket turrets out of the ground to shoot at Kayla.

Chelsea immediately flew up and blocked Kayla with a shield as she and Jeffrey continued their work of pulling wires.

Albina then flew up and started covering part of GLaDOS's body with ice to distract her from going after Kayla. Brandon got the same idea as he jumped up and phased his hands through GLaDOS's mainframe and started pulling wires out as GLaDOS began aiming rocket turrets at all of them.

Sylvie tried to stop all the rocket turrets at once but fell on the ground unconscious into Roscoe's arms and started convulsing like before. The rocket turrets had the virus inside them, too. The rocket turrets then proceeded to fire with nothing impeding them. Chelsea put up shields around everyone and was able to block all of the rockets while Albina blocked the ones around her, Kayla, and Jeffrey with her ice, much to GLaDOS's disappointment.

"Sylvie?!" Hugo yelled as he got on the ground next to Roscoe.

"I can heal her," Roscoe said. "Just keep GLaDOS distracted."

"Gladly," Hugo said as he shot out flames towards GLaDOS to keep her from going in their direction.

Roscoe held Sylvie in his arms while healing her as the turrets, Chell, Atlas, and P-Body gathered around her to protect her.

"Remember what Kayla said. We can't be cowards anymore," Peppermint said as she ran out from behind the shields and opened fire on GLaDOS.

The other turrets took courage from her example and followed suit. Immediately, the rocket turrets started firing at them, but Kayla stopped pulling out the wires to move the turrets around and use her portal gun to redirect the missiles towards the rocket turrets, killing a decent number of them. Chell ran over to help, creating more portals in her wake to kill even more of the rocket turrets.

"You need to stop this, GLaDOS!" Chelsea yelled. "You're not winning!"

"I don't care," GLaDOS said angrily. "I get to finally try to kill you, sparrow, and that's enough for me."

"I need to end this," Pastor Roberts said to himself in a tone that was loud enough for everyone to hear.

He electrocuted all the rocket turrets so that they short-circuited and fell over on the ground. He then shot electricity straight into GLaDOS but unlike before she didn't faint.

"My circuits are stronger now," GLaDOS said to him. "I can't be overcome by that anymore."

Pastor Roberts gritted his teeth in frustration as GLaDOS continued to gloat over him.

Yet in spite of her outward confidence, GLaDOS was beginning to feel weaker from all that Kayla and Brandon had done. She knew that she could not last longer unless she did something. She could not be going down without more of a fight. Besides, even if she was out of other resources, she had one secret weapon left and decided that now was the time to use it.

"Do you remember the neurotoxin emitters that you all broke?" GLaDOS said out loud so everyone could hear. "They're not only fixed. They work even faster than before."

A monitor came up with the countdown starting at four minutes.

Chelsea immediately dissolved the shields around everyone and sprang into action. She knew she had to focus all of her efforts on cutting off GLaDOS's head. It was the only way to stop her.

GLaDOS knew that she would be trying to kill her so she just as quickly pulled up a panel in front of her face to stop her.

"What are you doing sparrow?" GLaDOS asked. "Dying is what you have wanted to do since arriving. I'm just giving you what you want."

"I'm done with you playing God," Chelsea said.

GLaDOS brought out a claw that was covered in electricity as Chelsea ducked to avoid it and blocked it with her shield.

"I hope you like this," GLaDOS said. "I've been working on it ever since you destroyed my first claw. The electricity on it is at quite a high voltage. I know you will enjoy the burning sensation in your skin."

"You know you can't hurt me when I'm like this," Chelsea spat out.

"I can try. Can't I, sparrow?"

Chelsea flew out of the way of her claw and continued to block it as GLaDOS continued going after her. It was a parry back and forth. GLaDOS tried to strike Chelsea with the claw and Chelsea blocked it with her shields. It was like this wherever she moved. Chelsea walked on the ground. She flew into the air. She walked on the walls. She did everything she could to block GLaDOS and keep her distracted while her family continued their work. GLaDOS's mind was being torn apart with Kayla and Jeffrey pulling out the wires, Brandon phasing through her, Hugo shooting fire in her direction, the turrets firing, and Albina freezing her with ice, but GLaDOS didn't care. She wanted to hurt the girl who had brought her so much pain and was now bringing about her end.

GLaDOS finally stopped to look at Chelsea. She was standing on the ground and panting. She stood still and didn't move looking at GLaDOS to see what she was doing. Everyone else stopped to see what was going to happen next.

"You seem tired, sparrow," GLaDOS gloated. "Breathe in the neurotoxin. I assure you. It will help you feel better."

"That's not going to happen," Chelsea said with a wry smile.

"Why not?"

"Sylvie has disabled the neurotoxin."

Sylvie who was still sitting on the ground in Hugo's arms waved over to Chelsea who turned to look at her. GLaDOS looked at the monitor which had indeed stopped counting down and checked the neurotoxin which had indeed been disabled.

GLaDOS turned to Chelsea and stopped. Everyone waited on edge to see what would happen next.

"You have taken advantage of my weaknesses again," GLaDOS said in an eerily calm voice. "I'm impressed. You all are more cold-blooded killers than Orange and Blue ever were. You all would have made great test subjects."

The slow clapping played over the intercom out loud for everyone to hear.

"It is depressing to think of what could have been," GLaDOS said. "But dwelling over your mistakes gets in the way of science. Now, I must deal with the problem at hand and its source, the one who started it all…"

GLaDOS quickly turned her electrified claw towards Chell. Chelsea cut the claw off before it reached her mother, but GLaDOS even more quickly reached over her and electrocuted Chell.

"NO!" Chelsea screamed at the top of her lungs. "STOP!"

GLaDOS would not stop so before anyone else could do anything Chelsea ran over to GLaDOS's head. She had no time to hesitate. She created two large discs and with one movement brought those two discs together around GLaDOS's head.

"Just like a dancer," GLaDOS said as she felt her head being cut off.

The head fell to the ground and the wire fell onto the floor as well. Chell fell over on the ground as Roscoe and Zaki ran over to help her. In the meantime, Chelsea stood on her feet, dissolved the shields in her blood, and looked over at the head as the weight of what she had done fell on her shoulders.

Zaki held Chell in his arms as Roscoe healed her. Once Chell was healed, she looked upon her daughter in amazement. Everyone did. Chelsea just continued to look at the head and the body that she had dislodged it from.

"Chelsea," Kayla said breaking the silence. "I can't believe it. You really…did it."

Chelsea looked at her in a sad smile and said, "I guess I did."

"Alright," Sylvie said as she stood up. "I suppose now we…"

_"Just like a dancer."_

Everyone froze once again as they heard the familiar voice. Chelsea walked over to its source on the ground and turned the head around. It was GLaDOS. Though her head was lying on the ground and no longer attached to a body, that yellow eye still glowed.

Chelsea backed up in surprise as GLaDOS said once again, "Just like a dancer."

"What?" was all Chelsea could manage to get out.

"You're just like a dancer," GLaDOS said in a weak but thoughtful voice. "Your movements, your will, your strength, it all moves in a dance being powered by music that only you and your friends can hear. You have done nothing but dance since you have arrived. Whether you were weak, whether you were strong and fighting, whether you were speaking, it has all been a dance powered by music far away. I know I don't need to explain to you what that music is."

"The Holy Spirit of God," Chelsea said with a sad smile.

"You would be correct," GLaDOS said with a sigh before continuing. "It is a rare occasion for me to admit this, and by rare, I mean this has never happened before ever, but I have to admit that it was wrong to try to keep you. I never should have tried. You could never live as a test subject. I never could have hoped to control you. You are far too wild."

"GLaDOS…" Chelsea said.

"Do you want to know something else, sparrow? You remember the crows I told you about in the very beginning and how I told you that they escaped from me? That was a lie. I let them go. I could tell that like you they were pining for freedom. It hurt me to see them that way, so I let them go. I should have done the same for you. I'm sorry. It's mostly because I'm about to die, but all the same, I will say it. This is the first time I have genuinely regretted something I've done, so I'll say it. I'm sorry."

A moment of silence passed. Chelsea sat down on the floor in front of GLaDOS and looked her in the eye. Everyone else watched to see what would happen.

"GLaDOS," Chelsea said with a serious look in her eyes as she tried unsuccessfully to resist tears. "You have made life absolute hell for me, my mother, and for an innumerable group of people. This entire place and you deserve to burn in hell. Nonetheless, I still stand by what I said earlier. I forgive you. I don't want to hold onto my anger and live hating you. You are horrible and you don't deserve it, but no one does. Everyone is capable of evil and everyone is capable of changing and doing good. God forgives and offers redemption because he loves us and wants us to be free. I just want the same for you."

GLaDOS gave a quiet laugh as sparks flew from the wires that used to attach her head to her body.

"After all that has happened, you still want to be kind to me?" GLaDOS asked in disbelief. "You are truly the most remarkable test subject I have ever had. You have been stubborn, unbearably talkative, difficult, and undyingly noble from the very start. You have also been right about many things. For instance, I do respect you as much as I respect your mother."

Chelsea gave a sad smile before GLaDOS continued.

"However," GLaDOS said. "I must again resist your offer."

"Why?!" Chelsea yelled in frustration and disbelief. "Why do you want to die so badly? Do you just want to go to hell?!"

"A life with you would never suit me, sparrow. You know that deep down. Don't you? I'm not meant for that kind of life."

"Atlas, P-Body, and all of the turrets are going to that life. What makes you different?"

"I'm not like them. They are adaptable creatures, willing to leave their own lives for something better. I'm not. Science is what owns me, sparrow. Remember? My life here is what I want and what I will always want. You say that it's hell and that may be true, but for me, it's also home. They say that people who are going to hell are people who want to be there in the first place. I guess you could say that's true for me. You could say that I enjoy being in hell and I will enjoy entering hell even more. Besides if I am left alive, I will spend every second of my existence finding a way back to my body and finding a way to get back at every single one of you. That is a promise."

"You have to die then."

"I suppose so."

The tears were coming down Chelsea's face even faster as she bowed her head, stood up, and walked away.

"We have to kill her," Chelsea said as she walked back over to her group of friends who had gathered behind her. "We have no other choice."

"I guess you're right," Jeffrey said. "The robot idea won't work after all."

"No, it won't," Chelsea said as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

Chell wrapped her arms around Chelsea as she held her in a gentle hug and looked forward.

"The question is how to do it," Kayla said as she stood there and contemplated.

Suddenly, P-Body ran out of the crowd. He ran up to GLaDOS and kicked her repeatedly as hard as he could. He was full of rage at the deception she had put them under, the painful deaths that she had brought to so many people, and how she had hurt Chelsea. She was a monster through and through and deserved to die as horribly as she had made all the humans die.

GLaDOS did not make any sound of protest but felt sorrow overcome her heart as the full force of their betrayal overcame her.

Everyone else was taken aback in shock, but Chelsea stepped in as soon as she saw him run. She got out of her embrace and ran towards him.

"P-Body, stop!" Chelsea yelled as she put a shield in between him and GLaDOS. "You can't kill her like that! If you do, you are no better than she is. Please stop it!"

P-Body looked at Chelsea and gave a beep of understanding. He then gave GLaDOS one last look of contempt as he walked away.

"Why not?" Kayla asked. "That's as good a death as any. Isn't it? It's not like she doesn't deserve it."

"We have to be better people than that, Kayla," Chelsea pleaded as she turned back to the group. "We have to be more merciful in the way that we do it, or else, we're no better than any other bad guy. We won't drag it out. We won't be sadistic. We will make it quick, like the Israelites did when they brought _their_ enemies down with the sword. We'll be better than she is."

"I can pull the wires out of her head, Chelsea," Brandon said. "That way, she won't have to suffer for long."

"That would be good," Chelsea said with a sad smile. "We will do that."

Brandon and the group walked over to GLaDOS and prepared to send her to hell while Kayla stood with Atlas and P-Body behind them further back making plans of their own.

"GLaDOS," Chelsea said as she crouched down at GLaDOS's level once again. "Is there anything that you want to say before you go?"

"Yes," GLaDOS said. "I stand by what I said before. You and your mutated friends can have all that the facility has to offer."

"What?" Chelsea asked in confusion. "Are you serious?"

"Of course, Black Mesa cannot be the only ones being glorified out there," GLaDOS said proudly. "You have to show the world the science that this facility has made. There's even medication for your ADHD if you decide to take it."

GLaDOS paused for a second before continuing, "I need you to do something else for me. I need you to never change for anyone, sparrow. You are a wild, noble, and beautiful bird. I know from experience that the world doesn't usually appreciate things of merit such as yourself. They will try to control you, silence you, and force you to be the way that they want you to be. You cannot let that happen. Even as you go out and save the world and meet other people, you can't let them change who you are. Even if it's your spiritual tribe over here or your own mother trying to do it, you cannot let them change you. Can you do that, Chelsea?"

"We will never try to change her, GLaDOS," Chell said as she crouched down next to her daughter. "I know that I would never try to change her for the world."

"Good," GLaDOS said with a sad smile in her voice. "That makes me happy…"

It was then that Kayla and the robots made their move. P-Body and Atlas stood in front of the others while Kayla lifted GLaDOS out of their reach.

"Kayla, what are you doing?!" Chelsea yelled.

"She killed Alpha, Daffodil, and Violet," Kayla said with tears of anger in her eyes as she tore open a panel on the wall revealing the outside. "She deserves a worse death than this!"

"Kayla, I know how you feel but taking revenge like this is wrong," Albina said in desperation.

"She's right, Kayla," Pastor Roberts said. "Please don't do it."

Everyone else pleaded things among the same lines.

"I feel like this is the right thing to do," Kayla said as she held GLaDOS over the expanse outside the chamber. "Besides, I can always ask God for forgiveness later."

"Kayla, no!" Chelsea yelled.

But it was already too late, Kayla dropped GLaDOS and let gravity do its work. Chelsea created a disc under her and flew after her through the hole in the wall before anyone could stop her.

"Chelsea!" Albina yelled after her as she flew up to the hole.

GLaDOS fell down at a rapid pace and Chelsea moved her disc faster and faster until she caught up with her just in time to block the turrets from shooting her.

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked. "Are you going to save me? Were you distracted because of your short attention span? I already told you what I would do if you did."

"I don't want to kill you like this," Chelsea said.

"You don't need to interfere. I am happy to die like this. It is how I killed Violet after all. It feels fitting somehow. As for you however, I need you to leave. I need to think while I still can."

Chelsea kept going down beside her for a moment unsure of how to respond.

"I need you to do something else for me, Chelsea," GLaDOS said.

"Yes?" Chelsea responded.

"I need you to take care of the robots for me. Now that I'm leaving, they need someone to watch after them. It's a hard job, but I think they'll be alright if they're with you."

"I think they will, too."

"Finally, something we agree upon, I guess miracles do happen after all."

Chelsea flashed a sad smile before GLaDOS spoke again.

"You don't need to feel bad about killing me, sparrow," GLaDOS said. "You can go. The truth is I have wanted something like this to happen for a long time."

"You have?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes and now, I'm getting my wish. Now if you don't mind, Chelsea, I have some things to think about and since it is a long fall, it is now the time to think about it. Goodbye, my friend. For the record, when I say that I mean both you and your mother."

"I won't interrupt your thoughts. I'll stay at a distance so that you can call me if you need me."

"Thank you."

GLaDOS spent the rest of the fall thinking. She thought about her life, all that she had experienced, and she thought about Chelsea and Chell and her spiritual family and what they had shown through their dance. She thought and thought as she fell and Chelsea flew not that far above her. She then finally breathed a simulated sigh of relief as she looked up at Chelsea just as they were approaching the bottom.

"I have made my decision, Chelsea," GLaDOS said.

"About what?" Chelsea asked.

"I think you know."

Chelsea gave an understanding nod.

"What did you decide?" Chelsea asked.

"I'll let that be a surprise," GLaDOS said calmly even though she knew what was coming.

"Do you want me to save you?"

"No, I want you to live well. Good luck, sparrow."

GLaDOS hit the bottom with a loud bang as pieces of her mainframe flew everywhere. Chelsea stood on the ground and looked down at the pieces as she finally knew it. GLaDOS was dead. She was both free from her state and either imprisoned in hell or celebrating in heaven. Either way, it was her choice. It was like the Schrodinger's Cat Paradox in a way. She was both alive and dead at the same time and the only way Chelsea would ever find out which way she went was when the time for her came to open the box and enter in herself.

Either way, tears fell down her face in her mixed emotions as she realized one thing: it was finally over and they were all going to be free.

Chelsea looked over the wreckage one more time as she created a disc under herself and prepared to head up.

_"What's going on?"_

Chelsea jumped in fear. The voice wasn't GLaDOS's but it sounded very familiar. She looked around for the source of the voice and she finally spotted the broken but somewhat intact body of a turret with a purple eye.

"I shouldn't be here," Violet said very weakly and very sadly. "I should be dead."

"Violet," Chelsea said quietly as she ran over to her and crouched down to examine her body.

Violet was in bad shape. She had been shot and she was short circuiting badly. Her body was banged up and she shouldn't have survived, but evidently by the grace of God, she had.

"Violet, it's all right," Chelsea said calmly as she put a disc under her. "Don't worry. I'll save you."

"No," Violet groaned. "I have to die. I need to die."

Chelsea put a disc under herself and the two flew all the way up to where their group was.

She finally flew through the hole and brought her surprise with her.

"Chelsea, are you alright?" Chell asked. "Is she…?"

Chelsea solemnly nodded and lowered Violet to the ground.

"Why am I still here?" Violet groaned as sparks flew from her remains.

"Violet?!" Sylvie yelled in surprise as she, Kayla, and Albina ran over to her. "I can't believe it. You're still alive."

"Kill me, please," Violet pleaded. "It hurts too much. I just want to die. I don't deserve to still be here. Please."

"You'll be alright," Sylvie said comfortingly. "I'll take care of you. Please hold on."

Sylvie concentrated and proceeded to put Violet back together as best she could as Chelsea landed on the ground and hugged her mother.

"She didn't let me save her, Mom," Chelsea told her in a tone that was loud enough for everyone to hear. "I would have but she said that that is how she wanted to die. I let her die. I stayed with her to the end but I let her die. I can't believe I did it."

"You did nothing wrong, Chelsea," Albina said. "You gave her a better death than she deserved. She would have killed us if she came back anyway. She said so herself."

"She's right," Kayla said. "If anyone is guilty here, it's me. I'm the one who dropped her. I know I'll feel bad about it eventually, but for now, I'm glad I did what needed to be done."

Atlas and P-Body beeped in approval as Pastor Roberts gave Kayla a glare to show that he still did not approve of what she had done.

Kayla sighed and said, "I'll probably have to ask for forgiveness for that. I know that, grandpa, but for now, I don't feel guilty. I don't think what I did was really wrong."

"It's alright, baby," Chell said as she saw Chelsea tearing up in her arms. "It's over. We can go home."

Chelsea hugged her mother back even more closely and smiled.

"You don't need to be sad," Terry said as he walked up. "You've saved us. Now, we're all free and we can go outside."

Chelsea let go of her mother and bent over to rub Terry's head. He was right. They _were_ now all free. GLaDOS was dead and Chelsea wished that it didn't have to be that way, but ultimately, it was a choice that GLaDOS made for herself. She wanted to kill them and she wanted to die. But in the end, they had done good. They had stopped her from doing any more evil things, they had saved the test subjects, they had saved the robots, and Chelsea and Chell had conquered their demon. Now, a new sun could rise.

"How do you feel, Terry?" Chelsea asked him. "Are you ready to go outside again?"

"Yes," Terry responded quietly yet excitedly.

An excited murmur went through the crowd of turrets as they realized what was about to happen.

"Can you help us, Sylvie?" Chelsea asked.

Sylvie stopped what she was doing for a second to activate the lift. It immediately came down to where they were and opened.

"It will keep going down and up in a loop," Sylvie said while focusing on Violet. "You can all get out that way. I'm not leaving until Violet is fixed."

"Neither will I," Albina said. "Go ahead and taste your freedom, my sister."

Chelsea smiled and nodded.

"Does anyone want to go up on the first trip?" Chelsea asked.

"I'm going," Terry said.

"You should go with him, Chelsea," Brandon said. "He can't go by himself, and besides, I know you want to get out of here more than anyone else does."

"Are you sure?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes," Jeffrey said. "We'll be fine. It's not like…anyone is going to come get us."

Chelsea smiled sadly as everyone else nodded for her to go on.

"Okay," Chelsea said as she and Terry walked towards the lift. "I'll see all of you soon."

Chelsea and Terry stepped into the lift and it immediately headed towards the surface.

As the lift went up, Chelsea surveyed her surroundings. She saw her parents holding each other in a happy embrace while her godfather stood beside them. She saw Jeffrey and Brandon watch her go up. She saw Sylvie hunched over Violet on the ground as Kayla, Albina, and Hugo watched. She saw all the other robots waiting eagerly around the lift for their turns. Then right before they were out of sight, she saw her pastor looking over _her_ remains.

That last image put a lot of thoughts in Chelsea's mind. It made her think everything that she had experienced with her, that AI, GLaDOS. She reflected on her experiences and looked at her scar as the lift went up.

Terry did not feel Chelsea's emotion but quietly took in everything that he was sure he would never see, all the levels of the facility that he saw as he went up and took in how big the facility was. He grew increasingly excited until the lift finally made its way up to the surface.

Once the lift stopped, the door to the lift and the door to the shed both opened at once. Terry ran out into the fields immediately while Chelsea stayed in the elevator lost in her thoughts.

He ran out into the field of dying wheat and looked up at the gray overcast sky that was just beginning to grow dimmer in its daily transition to night. Terry was still looking around at the sky when he spotted something tiny and white fall in front of his face. He watched as it fell to the ground and stuck there. Terry then spotted another one falling from the corner of his eye and looked up in wonder as he realized that there were a bunch of little white things falling from the sky.

Terry turned around and noticed that Chelsea was still in the lift.

"Chelsea!" Terry yelled. "Chelsea! Look!"

Chelsea looked up from her thoughts and saw Terry outside and the snowflakes that surrounded him. She quickly untied Hugo's jacket from around her waist and wrapped it around her body as she went outside. The lift quickly shut and descended behind her.

Chelsea looked up and watched the snow. It was falling lightly and soon it would be falling heavily, but to her, that didn't matter. She knew its beauty was a blessing because in the past month she had feared that she would never see it again. Chelsea smiled at her companion and shed tears of joy as she thanked God for the beauty and the freedom that was blessing both their lives.


	58. Epilogue

Epilogue

That night, Chelsea slept in her bed for the first time in a month. She had gone there immediately after eating dinner and taking a hot shower and had fallen asleep very quickly.

Her room was a typically sized single room next to her parents' room at the hotel.

She slept in a queen-sized bed with white covers sitting in front of a television in a cabinet where Chelsea stored her clothes and other things. On top of that cabinet were several cameras in bags. Next to that cabinet, to the left, was a sitting area and next to that a small kitchen. Beyond the kitchen was a bathroom and beyond that was the door. On the desk on the other side of the television was a desk that had a few more cameras on it, along with books, her laptop, her two printers, and sketch pads among other things, along with a rolling desk chair that had Hugo's jacket hanging on the back of it. Next to the desk was a large window covered by a curtain. Closer to the bed, on the right, there was a chair with a small table that had National Geographic magazines and more books around it, including the Bible and a notebook she wrote her prayers in. On the other side of the bed was a bed side table with a lamp and a telephone. Everything sat on top of an aquamarine carpet. On the walls were a few paintings that were there since before the Combines, a few superhero posters that Chelsea had found over the years, and a few photographs that she had framed.

The whole room was peaceful and dark as Chelsea slept. Terry slept in the chair next to the bed, equally as peacefully. He was one of the few turrets who had decided to come to the hotel that night. Most of the turrets were too scared to journey too far from the facility, and so the only turrets who were willing to leave were the ones who had spent the most time with the humans. Terry, Rose, Peppermint, Ignatius, the Prophet Turret, and Violet, who Sylvie brought back to work on some more, came back with the group. Atlas and P-Body came back with them as well. The people at the hotel received them openly yet cautiously knowing what Chell had told them, and the people who had been trapped in the facility were also welcomed and attended to.

Everything had worked out very well, and all seemed peaceful, for the time being.

Then suddenly, Chelsea woke up sweating and breathing hard. She looked around the room to know for certain that she was where she thought she was.

"What's the matter?" Terry asked, having been awakened by Chelsea.

"I had a nightmare," Chelsea said in between breaths as she sat up.

"What is a nightmare?" Terry asked as he stood up.

"It means that I saw scary images in my mind while I was sleeping," Chelsea explained patiently. "It happens when humans sleep. Their mind makes images while they're sleeping. Sometimes, they're good, but sometimes, they're bad. This time, it was bad."

"Okay," Terry said innocently.

Chelsea looked at him and smiled. The irony was too much. He was so much like her as a child when she was trying to understand her mother's issues. Now, she was in the place of explaining her problems to him. It was almost funny.

"Did you see _her_ and the facility?" Terry asked.

"Yes, I was back in the chamber with _her _before I met you. I was trying to escape while she held me down and let a robot tranquilize me with chloroform until I fell asleep," Chelsea said. "It was scary."

"I know how you feel," Terry said after a moment of silence. "I dealt with scary things, too. After I was created, I had nothing to look forward to but dying after trying to kill someone. That's all that turrets were made for, and I had no choice but to follow my directive. I made music to try to endure it, but all the same, I was scared, too."

Chelsea looked at him and smiled. It was a relief to know that he was much wiser than she was when she was a child. He had also gone through hell, and they would get through this together.

"So, do you want to go back to sleep?" Terry asked.

"Sure," Chelsea said as she laid back down.

"Let me know if you have any nightmares. Okay?" Terry said as he closed his eye.

"I will," Chelsea said as she closed hers. "Thanks!"

Chelsea laid in bed for about twenty minutes, but as hard as she tried, she could not sleep and eventually lost her patience. She sat up in bed again and looked around the room, wondering what to do.

Then when her eyes rested upon her desk and the scrapbook that was lying on top of it, Chelsea got an idea. She got out of bed and walked across the room to pull her scrapbook out from the pile of books and look over it. She sat down at the chair in front of her desk, turned on the desktop lap, cleared a space, and opened the scrapbook in front of her. She flipped through the pages of the book, smiling at the memories, and finally, found pages that were blank.

_"What are you doing?"_

Chelsea looked to her right to see Terry standing next to her chair.

"I can't sleep, so I thought that I would do a little art project," Chelsea said.

"What are you going to do?" Terry asked.

"You'll see," Chelsea said as she twisted her chair around and got up from it. "I have an errand to run first."

Chelsea put on Hugo's jacket over the black tank top she was wearing and made sure that her pink-striped pajama pants were tied tight and would not fall off. She then put white slippers over her bare feet, walked over to the lamp to turn it off so as not to waste the solar power that was collected during the day or attract the attention of anything that might be flying above, and walked to the door.

"Would you like to come with me?" Chelsea asked when she saw that Terry had not moved.

"Sure," Terry replied as he quickly walked behind her.

"Alright," Chelsea said more quietly. "Just be quiet, alright? Everyone else in the hotel is trying to sleep."

The two exited the room and Terry followed Chelsea to Kayla's room. Chelsea knocked on the door and waited for the reply. The door was pulled open telekinetically and the pair stepped in as the door shut behind them.

"You can't sleep here either, huh?" Kayla said as she took off her headphones and flew to where they were in her dark room.

"No," Chelsea said. "I was actually going to work on an art project to help me fall asleep."

"What did you have in mind?" Kayla asked as she flicked the lights on revealing the long white t-shirt she was wearing.

"Could you let me borrow your phone?"

"Why do you want my phone?"

"I want the photo that you took of GLaDOS for the scrapbook."

"Oh, yeah. You did mention doing that. Didn't you?" Kayla said with a yawn before continuing. "Do you _really_ have to take it now? I was using the music to fall asleep."

"Kayla, I have to work on this," Chelsea said pleadingly. "If I don't, I will not find peace."

"Peace? What do you mean by _that_?"

"Never mind. Please just give me the phone."

"Alright," Kayla said in reluctance as she pulled the headphones out of the headphone jack of her phone and handed the device to Chelsea.

"Thank you, Kayla," Chelsea said as she turned to leave. "I'll get this back to you as soon as I'm done. Good night."

Chelsea then walked away as Terry followed right behind her.

"Why didn't you..?" Terry began in a loud voice.

"Shhhh, Terry, people are trying to sleep," Chelsea said quietly.

"Sorry," Terry said more quietly. "Why didn't you tell her about the nightmare?"

"I didn't want to worry her. She's having enough problems sleeping as is. I'll talk to my Dad about it eventually, but right now, everyone needs their rest. I said too much. I hope Kayla just lets it go."

"Okay, if you say so."

They very quickly made their way back to the room. As soon as she and Terry walked in, Chelsea turned on the light of the lamp and got to work. She turned on her laptop and connected the phone to the machine with a USB cord as Terry stood behind her to watch what she was doing. Chelsea got all the photos uploaded onto her computer and then picked out the one she wanted. She then got her photographic printer to print out the photo of GLaDOS and picked up the photograph with her hands. For a long time, she sat there, stared at the picture, and just reflected on all that had happened between them.

"Don't we need to take the thing back?" Terry asked interrupting her thoughts.

"Oh, yeah," Chelsea said as she put the photo down on her desk. "We do. Could you carry it there for me? Do you remember the way?"

"I remember the way, but I don't have arms," Terry replied. "I can't carry anything."

"That's right. How shall we deal with this? ...Wait a second."

Chelsea got up from her chair and opened one of the drawers of the TV cabinet. Then she opened another.

"What are you doing?" Terry asked.

"You'll see," Chelsea said.

Chelsea pulled out a pair of white socks, scissors, and a roll of twine. She unfolded the socks and placed the phone inside one of the socks. Next, she pulled out the right amount of twine and used her scissors to cut the twine. She then tied that twine around the top of the sock and tied the ends of the twine together so that it formed a loop.

"Open your guns, Terry," Chelsea said.

"Okay," Terry said uncertainly as obeyed her orders.

Chelsea hung the sock on Terry's right flap.

"I get it now," Terry said in understanding. "I'll carry the thing to her in this bag."

"It's called an iPhone, silly," Chelsea said with a smile as she opened her door. "Just knock on the door when you get back but don't be too loud. Okay?"

"Okay," Terry said as he walked out.

While Chelsea got to work on her scrapbook page, Terry made his way down the hall until he finally made it to Kayla's room.

Terry used one of his legs to tap on the door. Kayla opened it and looked down floating like a ghost near the top of the door frame.

"Your phone is in this thing," Terry said happily.

"Amazing," Kayla said in amusement. "Instead of bringing back the phone herself, she goes out of her way to make a weird device so that you can do it for her."

Kayla telekinetically lifted the twine and the sock that it was attached to, opened the sock, pulled out her phone, and put the sock on top of Terry's antennae.

Terry shut his guns and was turning to leave when Kayla said, "I'm glad Chelsea still has her creativity after what she has been through."

"Yeah, she's amazing," Terry said as he started walking back down the hallway.

He was then lifted in the air and pulled back to Kayla.

"What are you doing?" Terry asked in a panic.

"I need to know," Kayla said in a worried tone. "Did Chelsea have a nightmare? Is _that_ what she wanted to have peace from? Is that why she can't sleep?"

"She didn't want to worry you…" Terry began.

About ten minutes later, Kayla and Terry were in front of Chelsea's parents having heard him explain everything.

"I should have known," Chell said sadly as she sat in their sitting area in her purple pajamas. "She is acting how I did on my first night of freedom. She wants to be alone and she is refusing to talk to anyone about how she's feeling."

"Okay, you know now," Terry said as he trembled in fear. "Please don't hurt me."

"We're not going to hurt you," Chell said, ironically approaching the robot that she would run from before. "It's okay."

Terry backed up against the wall as Chell wrapped him in a gentle hug to make him feel better.

Zaki sighed from his seat and said, "Kayla, you didn't have to bring him here. He's scared to death."

"I wanted proof," Kayla said. "I'm sorry that my methods were harsh but…"

"But nothing," Zaki replied. "We are trying to show these robots that they can trust us and we're never going to do that if you keep intimidating them like you're doing."

Kayla suddenly realized that Zaki was right. She saw it as she looked at Terry and he shook in fear. To him, she was now no better than GLaDOS.

"Terry…" Kayla said. "I'm sorry."

Terry continued to tremble and would not move from his spot next to Chell.

"Terry," Kayla said as she flew closer to the two of them.

"I want to go now," Terry cried. "Let me out please."

"I'll open the door," Chell said as she stood up.

Kayla looked at him in guilt as the two of them walked to the door.

"Wait a second," Zaki said as he stood up. "We should all go to Chelsea's room to see how she's feeling."

"Zaki…" Chell began.

"I know Chelsea might not want our help right now, but she needs it," Zaki said in response to the thoughts that were in his wife's head. "I think just asking if she's okay is the right thing to do."

"Alright," Chell said in agreement.

"Uncle Zaki?" Kayla asked. "What can I do to help?"

"Be the supportive little sister that you have always been," Zaki said. "Also, find a way to apologize to Terry."

"I just tried," Kayla complained.

"Try harder," Zaki said. "And mean it."

"Terry, I'm really sorry," Kayla said. "Will you forgive me?"

"Okay," Terry said cautiously.

"We'll have to work out his trust issues later," Zaki said as he sat up.

Zaki walked over to their bed and put a bathrobe around him to protect his white shirt and red pajama pants from the cold. He then walked to the door to join his wife and Terry. Chell opened the door to their room and the trio walked out while Kayla flew behind them to see how things would play out.

As Terry walked out in front of them to the room on their left, they all noticed that the door had been propped open by Chelsea's long fall boots.

"That must be for me," Terry said as he stepped over the boots and walked into the room.

Kayla pulled the door open and let Chell and Zaki in before she followed them.

"Chelsea?" Chell asked quietly and calmly. "Are you still up?"

"She's asleep, Chell," Zaki said as he read Chelsea's mind and looked upon Chelsea lying in the bed on top of the sheets with the jacket at the foot of the bed.

Terry climbed into his chair and looked over at them.

"Are you going to wake her up?" Terry asked.

"No," Chell said as she walked up next to her. "We need to let her sleep. We'll talk to her in the morning."

"I agree," Zaki said. "Her mind is full of present dreams for the moment. We should tuck her in and let her enjoy them."

Chell nodded and the two of them got to work.

In the meantime, Kayla picked up the long fall boots and put them in the closet. When she was done with that, she picked up the sock from Terry's antennae and from the floor and folded the socks while putting all the other materials away. As soon as she was done with her work, Kayla's eyes wondered to the scrapbook and the pages that Chelsea had designed on her desk. She could not resist her curiosity. Kayla turned on the light to have a look at it.

Zaki held Chelsea up as Chell pulled the covers out from under her. Zaki then lowered her down until her head was lying on a pillow as Chell spread the covers over her daughter's body to keep her warm. Once the covers were settled on Chelsea's body, Zaki and Chell both crouched down to lay a kiss on each cheek.

"Goodnight, Chelsea," Chell said quietly as she rubbed her daughter's head. "I love you so much. You're grown up, but you're still my baby. I hope you know that you can talk to me about anything you're feeling. It's my turn to be there for you now."

"She's lucky to have friends like you," Terry said. "You're so sweet to her."

"We're not only her friends," Chell corrected as she stood up. "We are her parents. We have to take care of her."

"What are parents?" Terry asked in curiosity.

"Well…" Chell began.

"You need to read this, guys," Kayla said quietly as she turned around from what she was doing.

Zaki and Chell walked over to the desk and looked at the pages that Chelsea had filled in her scrapbook.

At the top left was a photo of GLaDOS as Kayla had captured her in the chamber. Under the photo and spread across the two pages were paragraphs written about GLaDOS in black ink.

The paragraphs read as follows:

"GLaDOS: Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, sadist, psychotic bitch, tragic villain, friend?

She was not a good A.I. by any means. She imprisoned me, my mother, and countless other people for what she called 'science.' She forced them to test until they psychologically broke down and died. She also mistreated the robots that were under her command. She was monster and the company that made her was monstrous, too. Aperture Science and GLaDOS are both gone now and it is for the better.

I suppose that I will have nightmares until I die because of what she did to me, just like my mother.

Nevertheless, by the grace of God, I can forgive her. She was horrible and did not deserve it. I wanted to kill her horribly at first, but God softened my heart. I realized that she and Caroline had suffered horribly at the hands of the scientists. I also realized that she was living out her pain and that anyone was capable of being corrupted like she was, like Caroline was. God changed my heart so that I wanted to save her.

I convinced everyone else to side with me in this endeavor. We did all we could to convince her to come into the Light but she refused. We had to fight her and eventually I had to cut off her head to stop her from killing my mother.

After giving her last words, Brandon was going to just pull the wires out of her head but P-Body tried to smash her and then Kayla dropped her into the abyss.

I followed her all the way down. She told me that she made up her mind about salvation and would not tell me what her decision was. I asked her if she wanted to be saved. She told me that she wanted to die so I granted her wish.

The last thing that GLaDOS told me was that she wanted me to live well. Before that, when she was on the floor of her chamber, she told me to never change. When she was falling, she admitted that I was right and that she did care about me and my mother.

I will not sugarcoat you, GLaDOS. You made life terrible for me, my mother, and many people. You were a murderous monster and I am glad you're gone, but I also wish that we didn't have to kill you. You were all alone and though you enjoyed pursuing your science, you were miserable. You were a lonely creature caught in limbo. You could have been a part of our family. You could have repented and changed. Your life could have been so beautiful. You could have finally found happiness."

The few tear drops that had dried showed that Chelsea had been crying.

The writing continued,

"Nevertheless, you chose death. You are dead and I will probably only ever see you again in this photograph, in my dreams, and in my scars. I hope to find you in heaven when I finally reach that point, but in case you really did choose hell, I want you to know something.

I am grateful for you. I'm sure you're already aware of this, but God used you to make me grow as a person. I used to be so judgmental. I wondered why God allowed humanity to continue living despite our many sins. I understand why now. Life is more complicated than I realized. Our world is fallen and good people can turn bad, even though they have good intentions. Anyone can be corrupted and turn into a monster. God offers his salvation to us for that reason, to save us from the darkness within. It is a dark truth, but it makes people open their hearts that much more easily when they understand that. My heart is more open now for knowing it. I am eternally grateful to you for teaching me that lesson.

Despite of your evil intentions, God used this awful ordeal to accomplish good after all. My heart was changed, my friends grew as people, my mother faced her fears, the robots were saved, and your evil was stopped.

I can only pray that something good has happened to you too, GLaDOS."

Chelsea had another nightmare and did not want to go back to sleep so she got up early the next morning. After she got ready, did devotions, and found some food to eat, she and Terry walked up the stairs to reach the roof and watch the sun rise in the early morning.

"How soon will the sun rise?" Terry asked in a mix of curiosity and excitement.

"I'd say in about half an hour or so," Chelsea replied patiently.

"How long is that?"

"Count to sixty 30 times. That is how long half an hour is."

"Oh," Terry replied.

He thought for a second while Chelsea continued walking and reached the steps before the door.

"Then," Terry said in an epiphany. "A whole hour would be counting to sixty 60 times!"

"That's right," Chelsea said happily as she stepped up, allowed the sensor at the top of the door to scan her, and turned around as the door opened. "You're getting smarter every day. Now, are you ready to see the sun?"

"Yes," Terry said even more happily.

Terry pulled up his lower eye shield into a smile as he walked up the stairs to catch up with Chelsea. They walked through the door and looked out at the roof that was spread out before them.

The roof was covered in about a foot of snow from the previous night. As such, Chelsea was bundled up from head to toe. She wore a purple hat with a purple scarf over a thick black coat and grey sweater. Her thick black pants were held up with a belt and were tucked into her black boots at the ends and her hands were covered by black gloves.

Terry ran out first onto the roof. It made him smile to see his legs sinking into the snow and to see the tracks that he left. The snow went about a third of the way up his legs but he didn't care. It made him happy to experience something new for the first time.

The snow made Chelsea happy, too. She reached down, picked a handful of it up with her gloved hands, and held it against to her face to let herself know that it was real.

"Are you coming out?" Terry asked.

"Yes," Chelsea said as she kicked the door so that it almost shut behind her, walked onto the roof, and dropped the snow on the ground. "Remember what I told you, Terry. You need to stay on the path. The solar panels will come out of where you're standing right now when the sun comes up."

"Okay," Terry said looking up at the clear sky which was growing brighter. "What does the sun look like?"

"You'll know when you see it," Chelsea asked as she crouched down on the ground of the path and started rolling balls of snow together.

"What are you doing?" Terry asked in confusion as he walked over to the path where she was.

"I'm making a snowman," Chelsea replied. "Do you want to help?"

Suddenly, the snow she had rolled together rolled out of her reach and gathered more and more snow until it became the perfect snowman base right before her eyes.

"What just happened?" Terry said in surprise.

Chelsea simply smiled and said, "Hello, Albina!"

Albina landed on the roof in front of Chelsea and the snowman base. She had her hair down and she was wearing black shorts, a white short-sleeved shirt with a pocket, and sandals that she was holding in her hands like she was going to the beach.

"Good morning," Albina said as she dropped her shoes on the ground behind her. "How have you been enjoying your freedom?"

"I have been enjoying it greatly," Chelsea said. "How have you been enjoying the snow?"

"I have loved it," Albina said as she moved her toes around in the snow as if it was sand. "I am so happy that it is finally cold enough for snow. It has felt like Paradise. I'm also glad that I could get up early to experience it. I just wish it was cloudier that way the sun would be blocked and my white skin wouldn't burn."

"You could just wear long sleeves and pants, you know."

"I could, but as I've told you before, I would not be able to fully enjoy the air and the icy around me."

Albina hydrokinetically moved some more snow through the air in between her fingers and asked, "Why are _you_ up so early?"

Chelsea was silent for a second and Albina suddenly dropped the snow back on the ground because she realized what had happened.

"You had a nightmare. Didn't you?" Albina replied.

Chelsea silently nodded while giving her friend a sad look.

In response, Albina walked up to her and gave her a hug. Chelsea leaned down slightly to hug her back and rest her head on Albina's shoulder while Terry looked on in sympathy.

The two stayed like that for a moment before letting go.

"Tell me, Albina," Chelsea said. "Do the nightmares always stay the same or do they get worse over time?"

Albina said, "Sometimes, they get worse and sometimes, they are not as bad. In the future, they get better, but they still linger."

"How do you deal with it?"

"You learn how to endure them and carry on. It also helps to have friends to talk to."

Chelsea smiled sadly for a second before saying, "I just don't know why I'm having them."

"What do you mean?" Albina asked.

"When I was down there with her, she knew that I had forgiven her. She said that she wanted me to live well and wanted me to let her die so I didn't save her. I thought we ended things on relatively good terms. If that's true, then why is this still happening?"

"Bittersweet ending or not, you still endured a traumatic experience, Chelsea. You were imprisoned and restrained against your will, torn apart and put back together, drugged, physically and psychologically abused, strangled on one occasion, forced to go through testing and watch a man die, and branded like a slave. You don't just walk away from a horrible experience like that without any scars."

"I suppose not," Chelsea said as she picked up more snow and put it on top of the snowman's base. "How do you deal with it, Albina? How do you put up with it?"

"It's complicated," Albina said as she rounded the snowman's core to make him more round like a traditional snowman. "God does not want you to be broken by your past. You need to make peace with the darkness in your life and you need to find a way to move on and let yourself be healed but that doesn't mean you forget. You never forget. The nightmares still come. What it does mean is that you allow God to heal you and help you overcome it so that it doesn't hold you back anymore. You must rely on God and the people you love to help you through this process too, because you can't do it by yourself. Eventually, you will come to the point where the nightmares are rare occurrences and be able to live happily."

"How has that worked out for you?" Chelsea asked as she picked up more snow to make the snowman's head.

"It has not been easy, but I had God, you, and your parents to help me get through it," Albina said. "Speaking of which, I was actually thinking about asking your father for another session to talk about the nightmare."

"Really?" Chelsea asked as she padded the top of the snowman's head together.

"Yes, your father can read minds anyway, so I know that he will be asking me about it sooner or later. What do you think?"

"I think it's a good idea."

"Good, then I will go, but on the condition that you go with me."

Chelsea froze in spot and looked down on the ground.

"I know that you don't want to deal with it right now, Chelsea," Albina said. "But, the best way to deal with a problem is to face it instead of avoiding it."

"It's just weird to talk to my dad like he's my therapist," Chelsea said as she stared at the ground. "I don't want to do it."

"Then, don't talk to him like your therapist. Talk to him like he's your dad."

"Alright," Chelsea said looking up. "I'll do it. Just let me know when you want to do it and I'll go."

"I wanted to go today," Albina said.

Chelsea gave a deep breath and said, "Alright, but let me finish the snowman and see the sun rise first."

Chelsea smoothed the edges of the snowman's head tensely and more tensely until she finally started tearing up.

Albina watched on and waited for her to speak until Chelsea said, "I don't know how I'm going to handle it. I'm worried that going to battle might make me even worse. I want to help, but I don't want to mess everyone up if I'm too damaged to go."

"We are not leaving until the spring, Chelsea," Albina said. "That is when the Lambda Group comes. That gives us about five months. Yeah? You'll be alright."

Chelsea nodded her head in assurance as she took her hands off the snowman's head.

"Thank you, Albina," Chelsea said. "You're the best sister-in-Christ ever!"

"Don't count the others out, Chelsea," Albina said as she shaped the snowman's head to be more proportional. "That is the mistake that I made. We're all a family in Christ and need each other to grow and carry on in this life. You need to trust in them, too."

"You don't always have to make everything perfect you know," Chelsea said about the snowman.

"I can't help it," Albina said dramatically. "I was raised to be perfect."

Chelsea rolled her eyes and gave her a smile.

Terry finally walked up to her, joined the conversation, and asked, "What are you making?"

"It's a snowman," Chelsea said. "It's a man made of snow."

Terry walked around the snowman to look at it and said, "It doesn't look like a human."

"Not yet," Albina said. "We still need to make his face and get him some limbs."

"We should go to the woods," Chelsea said. "We have a little bit of time before the sun rises, so we might as well."

"Okay," Terry said in hesitation. "I've never been in the woods before. Is it scary?"

"It can be," Chelsea said honestly. "There are dangerous things in there, but we know how to protect ourselves against them. You can protect yourself, too. You'll be fine."

"If you say so," Terry said nervously.

"Let's go," Albina said.

Albina put her shoes on and flew off the roof of the building down the five stories necessary to land on the ground. Chelsea put a disc under Terry and herself and followed behind her.

Just as they left, the door behind them opened. It was Violet, barely able to keep her balance as she limped out onto the roof.

Meanwhile in the forest, Chelsea was picking up a few dead branches while Albina was looking for rocks. Terry walked around taking in the view of the trees around him.

"Are these the plants you were talking about?" Terry asked.

"Yes," Chelsea said carrying the dead branches under her arm. "They aren't carrying green leaves right now, but they are plants. It will be amazing when you see them in the spring. They will sprout green leaves and be so pretty."

"I'll like that," Terry said. "But I think they're still pretty now. Every tree looks so different, with the way their branches all are reaching in different directions. Each one looks like a different work of art while all still being trees, kind of like how humans are."

"God likes making works of art out of everything," Chelsea said as she walked over to him carrying sticks in her arms.

"I can tell," Terry said as he sank his legs into the snow. "It's beautiful out here."

"Speaking of making great works of art," Chelsea said turning to Albina. "Hey, Albina! I was thinking. I need to do something about this scar."

Albina got up from picking up rocks and said, "I agree. The way it looks now is quite horrifying. What do you hope to do about it? Get another tattoo?"

"I was thinking about adding a tattoo around it so that it's not so noticeable and doesn't stick out so much," Chelsea said. "What do you think I should…Hey!"

P-Body had come up behind her and picked her up in his arms. Chelsea looked up behind her as he squeezed her in a hug and swung her from side to side, causing her to lose her hat and the two branches that she was carrying.

"Good morning, P-Body," Chelsea said while trying to pull herself out of his grip. "How are you doing? Would you put me down please?"

During his affections, P-Body had not paid any attention to what Chelsea had said. Atlas came up behind him and tried tapping on his back to get his attention but that didn't work. Albina created a snowball in her hand and threw it at P-Body's head.

Feeling the ball hit him in the head, P-Body stopped what he was doing, turned around, and looked at Albina.

"Chelsea said something," Albina said. "You need to pay attention to her."

Atlas chirped at him in agreement and pointed to Chelsea. P-Body looked at Chelsea to hear what she had to say.

"Would you put me down please?" Chelsea asked while breathing hard.

P-Body immediately put her down on her feet and patted her head.

Chelsea picked up her hat that had fallen on the ground and put it back on.

"I'm happy to see you too, P-Body," Chelsea said with a smile.

P-Body chirped in satisfaction as Peppermint and Ignatius came up to them.

"Iggy, it's amazing!" Peppermint shouted as she leaped through the snow like a three-legged doe. "The snow is everywhere! It's like Christmas already! We're walking in a winter wonderland like in the song! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"

"You need to slow down, my love," Ignatius said as he ran through the snow to keep up with her. "You also need to stop using the Lord's name in vain. That is a sin."

"Sorry, God!" Peppermint shouted just before getting to them. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings! Good morning!"

"Good morning!" Albina said. "What are you doing out so early?"

"Violet is missing," Ignatius said calmly. "Sylvie left her on her desk and woke up to her missing, so we're helping her find her."

"What?" Chelsea said. "How did she get out? I thought she couldn't even really move yet. Also, why can't Sylvie just read her mind?"

"Those two let her out," Peppermint said gesturing to Atlas and P-Body with her foot before continuing to stomp around in the snow. "Sylvie couldn't track Violet because of the anti-hacking virus in her brain so she looked around and found them and talked to them to ask them if they knew where Violet had gone. They said they let her out because they heard her tapping at the door while they were exploring the hotel, so Sylvie made them help. I know. Sylvie told me herself."

"Why did you two have to do something like that?" Chelsea asked the two robots.

Atlas and P-Body simply gave negative beeps and looked down.

"Sylvie asked us to help as well," Ignatius said. "Sylvie went looking around inside and told us to work together to look everywhere else."

"Yeah," Peppermint said as she jumped up. "Sylvie thought I could help because of me and Violet's mind connection."

"Mind connection?" Chelsea asked.

"You went to bed before the rest of us so you didn't get to hear her talk about it," Albina said. "Violet realized the truth because Sylvie formed a telepathic connection between Violet and Peppermint so that Violet could see through Peppermint's eye and hear what she said and thought."

"That's right," Peppermint said. "It turns out that if I focus it works the other way, too. I can see what Violet's seeing."

"So, is that why you're out here?" Chelsea asked.

"Yep," Peppermint said as she shut her eye for a second and then opened it again. "Violet is looking at the sky right now, so we figured that she has to be outside but I don't know where."

"Alright, then," Albina said in a serious tone. "We have to find Violet now. She's hurt and confused and needs our help. We need to split and search around the perimeter of the hotel. Atlas and P-Body?"

Atlas and P-Body came to attention.

"You two need to walk around the hotel that way," Albina said pointing behind them. "We'll walk around the other way and see if either of our groups can find Violet. Yeah?"

The two robots beeped in affirmation.

"Turrets," Albina said. "You guys are coming with us. P-Body and Atlas, you find us if you find Violet. Yeah?"

Atlas and P-Body chirped in affirmation as Atlas turned to walk the other way. When Chelsea turned around to leave with her group, P-Body chirped to get her attention. Chelsea turned around to see P-Body waving at her as Atlas hit him in the head with a snowball. P-Body looked back at Altas and made a snowball of his own in preparation to do the same thing. Chelsea waved back and smiled. It was nice to see them so happy and so free. Her group then set out on their way.

"Peppermint, do you see anything else?" Albina asked.

Peppermint closed her eyes and concentrated for a second before finally responding.

"No, all I see is sky," Peppermint said.

"Wait a minute," Chelsea said. "Can't you talk to her since your minds are connected?"

"I've tried," Peppermint said. "But when I responded to her, she just told me to go away. She sounded upset."

"We have to find her quickly, then," Albina said in a panicked tone as she flew up in the air.

"Why?" Chelsea said in concern. "What's going on?"

"Violet didn't want to live when you found her, Chelsea," Albina replied in apprehension as she turned around to look down at her. "What do you _think_ is going on? She's suicidal."

"You believe that she has gone somewhere to make a suicide attempt?" Chelsea said.

"Yes."

"Oh, Lord," Ignatius replied. "This is serious."

"Don't say God's name in vain, Iggy," Peppermint said.

"Sorry, God!" Ignatius said as he looked to the sky.

"We should spread out then," Chelsea said as she put a disc under her feet and under Peppermint's feet. "You're coming with us, Peppermint. Terry, you and Ignatius need to look on the ground."

"Okay," Terry said nervously.

"I am not leaving Iggy," Peppermint said fearfully as she jumped off the disc.

"And I'm not leaving my wife," Ignatius said as he walked up next to her.

"You have to help us, Peppermint," Chelsea said as she put another disc under her. "We need you to help save Violet, and we need Ignatius to help Terry look on the ground."

"But…" Ignatius and Peppermint started to say.

"I'm sorry, but…" Chelsea started to say before Albina interrupted her.

"Ignatius, you have God, your guns, and Terry," Albina said impatiently. "You will be fine. Let's go, Chelsea."

"Sorry, guys," Chelsea said as she flew away.

As Ignatius became smaller, Peppermint's complaining grew louder. Chelsea could not take it, so she went back and picked up Ignatius.

"My husband!" Peppermint yelled. "I missed you so much!"

"My wife!" Ignatius yelled. "I missed you so much!"

"Will you be alright by yourself, Terry?" Chelsea asked.

"I'll be okay," Terry said calmly. "I'll see you soon."

"Alright," Chelsea said. "See you soon."

Chelsea flew up and caught up with Albina. Ignatius and Peppermint stopped complaining and were relieved to be reunited, so Chelsea could breathe a sigh of relief.

"What did you do that for?" Albina said. "You shouldn't back track on your words like that, you know. They need to know that we're not flakes."

"I know, but now is not the time to work on making them drop their separation anxiety," Chelsea said. "Now is the time for us to be looking for Violet."

"You're right," Albina conceded. "Besides, we need peace and quiet to search and we wouldn't have that with Peppermint whining the whole time. Speaking of which, you turrets all need to be quiet for this search. Okay? We can't find Violet if everyone keeps talking, so be quiet unless you see her. Alright?"

"Okay," Ignatius and Peppermint said in affirmation.

"Peppermint, close your eyes and concentrate to see if you can find where Violet is, alright?" Chelsea said.

"Okay," Peppermint said as she shut her eye. "Don't let me fall off, Iggy."

"I wouldn't dream of it, love," Ignatius said.

With that, the four of them began flying around the hotel to see if they could find Violet.

In the meantime, Violet stood on the roof looking at the sky and contemplating. She had not expected to survive her fall. Statistically, it should have been impossible. Even worse, it was not what she wanted. She had tried to kill GLaDOS hoping that it would achieve the opposite results for her. Her execution was more than what she deserved for killing Alpha and Daffodil. In the Bible, she would have been stoned to death. Falling and getting shot got the job done, too. It gave her the punishment she deserved for her crime and gave her a way to redeem herself.

When Violet was shot, she had passed out and she thought it was the end. She saw a bright light and felt herself going towards it. But then, she felt herself getting pushed back until she was on the bottom of Aperture and looking at the girl they called Chelsea and crying out over why.

It made no sense. Violet knew she deserved to die. Why didn't God carry out her death sentence? It could have been a mistake. It was something she could correct. She didn't deserve to be here anyway.

Violet left her thoughts for a moment and looked at the sky in wonder. The sun was beginning to come up and it was beautiful. The world out here was gorgeous, and even if it did have bad things in it like GLaDOS said, part of Violet wanted to live in it.

There was no denying that, but Violet felt too guilty to deserve that kind of life. She felt that something that wonderful could ever truly be hers. She didn't deserve it. What she ought to do was jump over the side of the building and end it all once and for all. That is what Violet wanted to do, but she hesitated and could not bring herself to move a step.

So, Violet stood there and contemplated until she could decide. She was between life and death, and all it took to change her destiny was a few steps.

"Christ forgave his murderers. Are you _beyond_ his forgiveness?"

Violet turned around quickly and saw nothing there, as expected. That was the voice of the Prophet Turret, there in one second and gone in the next.

Violet gave out a "hmph" as she looked over the snow-covered roof.

"Easy for you to say," Violet said quietly to herself as she stared at the ground.

Meanwhile, up in the sky, Peppermint saw what Violet was seeing.

"I saw more about where Violet was," Peppermint said jumping up and down. "She's…Ahhhhhh!"

"Peppermint!" Ignatius shouted.

Peppermint had fallen off the disc and Chelsea had to put a shield around her to save her.

"Peppermint, are you alright?" Ignatius yelled in concern.

"I'm okay!" Peppermint yelled back.

"I told you not to jump around like that," Chelsea said as Peppermint was pulled back up into the air.

"I saw more of what Violet saw," Peppermint said as Chelsea flew her back to the disc. "She was looking at something covered in snow. It had a grey thing on it and there was a door and a snowman."

"She's on the roof," Albina said before she dashed away to the top of the roof with Chelsea following behind her.

In the meantime, Violet heard the commotion and it startled her. She looked at the ground below her and the sky above her in pressure. Someone was about to intervene so she had to make a decision then and there. Violet felt her head spinning. Whether it was from stress or from the loose wires that were in her head, she did not know, but she was dizzy and overwhelmed.

Violet was standing like that when Albina, Chelsea, and the turrets arrived.

"Hey, Violet!" Peppermint said as the group landed on the roof.

"Go away," Violet said angrily.

"Chelsea, move the turrets inside," Albina said.

"Go on, guys," Chelsea said. "This could get ugly. You need to hide."

"I understand. We shall pray," Ignatius said as Chelsea ushered him and Peppermint into the doorway and shut the door.

"Violet, are you alright?" Albina asked calmly.

"Stay away from me!" Violet said fearfully as she pulled out her guns and twitched, letting loose a few sparks.

"Violet, there is no need for that," Albina said as she stepped forward. "You don't have to do this."

"Stay away from me," Violet said.

Then aiming her guns at Chelsea, Violet said, "You stay away, too. This is all your fault!"

"What are you talking about?" Albina asked.

"I don't want to be alive," Violet said as her voice dropped down in anguish. "I don't deserve to be alive! She should have left me down there in that pit. I don't want to be here!"

"Why not, Violet?" Albina asked. "Why don't you have the right to be alive?"

"You know why," Violet said. "I am a murderer. In the Bible, murderers were killed so why _shouldn't_ I be killed? That is the main reason that I was content to die back there. I knew that I was getting what I deserved for turning on them."

"You are forgiven, Violet. I know. Sylvie told me what happened."

"I believe that, but I believe even more that I don't deserve to be here. I don't deserve to see that sun coming over the horizon. Alpha and Daffodil did, and now, they never will."

Violet took a step backwards closer to the edge.

"They are in the presence of God…" Albina quickly said.

"Maybe they are, but they never got a chance to live here," Violet interrupted. "I do, and it's not fair!"

"Violet," Chelsea said. "Albina and I are both killers. We know how you feel about…"

"I know," Violet interrupted. "Sylvie mentioned it to me. You killed GLaDOS and other robots. I know that, but I'm not the same. You did it to defend yourselves and other people. I did it because I was acting as her slave. I was trying to kill you to obey her orders. I acted as a mindless murderer, and I deserve to be punished."

Violet took another step backwards.

"Violet!" Albina yelled in desperation. "You were tricked into becoming a slave! You were manipulated! That does not mean that you are a horrible murderer who's beyond redemption! Please put those guns away and calm down. We can watch the sun rise together. Today can be the start of your new life here. Christ already took on the punishment for your sin! You can live as a free turret now. Please!"

"That may be true, but I still cannot ever fix my mistake. However, I can make sure that I pay for it, and that is what I'm going to do. Goodbye!"

Violet took the final step backwards and fell over the side of the building.

"Violet!" Albina yelled as she and Chelsea quickly flew over to the side of the building.

However instead of the sound of crashing, the two heard Violet yell out in surprise. When they finally reached the edge of the roof, they saw that P-Body had caught Violet in his arms so that her face was pointing up to the sky, and Atlas, Terry, and Sylvie were standing there next to them.

"Thank God!" Sylvie said shivering in her trench coat, pajama pants, and boots. "I was afraid I was too late."

"Why did you save me?!" Violet yelled in desperation and panic as P-Body continued to hold her in his arms. "I told you that I wanted to die!"

Violet opened her guns, but before she could shoot them, Sylvie commanded them to stay shut until further notice.

"No!" Violet shrieked once more. "I told you that I wanted to stay dead! It's not fair! Why am I here? Why do I deserve to be here? Why aren't they alive?! It's not fair! God, this is so unfair!"

"Violet, you need to calm down," Sylvie said calmly. "Everything is going to be okay."

"I don't want to be here! I just want to…!"

Sylvie was afraid that Violet would act out violently in some other way and damage herself so she commanded Violet to go into sleep mode. She didn't like having to do it, but she thought she had no other choice. Violet quickly fell asleep in P-Body's arms.

"It's alright," Sylvie said as she rubbed the right side of Violet's face which was pointing up to the sky. "You're free now. You have been given another chance at life and your duty is to not waste it."

"What are you going to do?" Albina yelled down.

"I'm going back inside with these two," Sylvie said gesturing to Atlas and P-Body as she looked up at her. "I'm going to get the software out of P-Body's head and into Violet's. Then, hopefully, we'll be able to help her."

"I'll pray for you," Chelsea said.

"Thank you," Sylvie replied. "I'm going back inside, ladies. Thanks again for your help! Bonne matinee!"

Sylvie and the three other robots turned around and walked away leaving Albina and Chelsea alone on the roof and Terry alone on the ground.

"Would you help me up?" Terry asked.

Without saying a word, Chelsea placed a disc under Terry and lifted him onto the roof next to her.

"That ended better than I thought it would," Albina said with a sigh. "I hope that Violet can be helped."

When Chelsea didn't reply, Albina turned around to see what she was doing. Albina smiled when she realized that Chelsea was watching the sun come up above the trees. It was a sight that she feared she would never see again. It brought her to tears.

"Oh, God," Terry said in amazement as he looked at the sun. "That is so beautiful!"

Albina settled on the other side of Chelsea as the trio took in the sight together. They all sat there in silence and in awe as the sun slowly lit up the landscape of barren trees and snow with its light. The sunlight eventually reached them on the roof so that they could feel it on their faces. It was so silent that Terry jumped when he heard the solar panels rise up from under the snow.

That development gave Chelsea an idea. She took her gloves off so that she could absorb the sun's energy through her hands and instantly felt a little more energized as a result.

That was when she came up with an idea.

"Hey, Albina!" Chelsea said. "I know what I want my tattoo to be."

Later that day, Chelsea sat on a stool with her red flannel shirt on her lap in her black camisole, jeans, and boots in a meeting room as her godfather inked her tattoo on her left arm. Terry, Albina, Jeffrey, her parents, and Brandon were there with her watching the work get done.

With a happy grin, Roscoe finally put his tools down and held up a mirror so that Chelsea could see his finished work. She smiled in response as everyone else gathered around to see it.

On her left arm, underneath the brand of Aperture Science Laboratories, was the black silhouette of a sparrow.

The End (for Now)


End file.
